Mobile Suit Gundam SEED: Revised
by Xamusel - Gamma 11
Summary: Co-written with AstralXYZ. When Science and Magic collide, it is usually a battle of wills to see which would win. However, when Kira and friends discover the power to use Magic from a strange source, they will prove to the world around them that Magic and Science can co-exist. Fem!Kira, multiple OCs, and a unique plot idea. Rated M for good reason!
1. To the Beginning

**Xamusel: Well, I know what a lot of you are probably thinking. You're probably thinking, "Why are you starting ****_another_**** new story?! Are you ****_intentionally_**** trying to mimic Jorn and the rest?!" The answer? Hell no! I'm doing this because I was granted the rights to use someone else's characters (I tend not to do this sort of thing whenever I use other people's OCs, but I make exceptions at times, like right now), as well as to explore a theme that could very well happen in this sort of setting, among other things. If you want to know my master plan, well, that will have to be revealed closer to the end of the story. For the time being, however, you'll have to sit tight and watch the show the way it was meant to.**

**In any case, this will be your first chance to see what it's like for a Gundam setting to be with Fantasy elements, or even a full Fantasy setting. I wish you the best in finding out the whole story of this adventurous setting.**

**Oh, right, the OCs of the Yukikaze family belong to AstralXYZ. Credits go to him.**

**Now… shall we get on with the story? Or do you have reservations against this sort of story?**

**Disclaimer: I own only my OCs and other such concepts of this particular project. If I owned everything related to this project, why would I write a fanfic of it? It doesn't make any sense in the slightest, not one little lick. Please, everyone, get it through your heads that I'm broke!**

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><p><strong>Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Revised<strong>

_by Xamusel and AstralXYZ_

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><p><span>Chapter 1<span>: To the Beginning

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><p><span><em>January 15th, Cosmic Era 67<em>

A young preteen girl of 12 was walking through the place that had been her hometown for the last nine years, knowing that she was supposed to move to a more neutral place for when a war could start breaking out. As she walked around, her mind was wandering, partially to the time her parents had told her and her little sister that they were moving to the Heliopolis space colony in the area of L3… but more to how things had forced her to leave a place that she considered home. It was a blow to her pride in staying on the Lunar city of Copernicus, but she felt the desire to keep her and her little sister safe, mainly due to the military base near the city in a crater.

Now that the preteen girl was walking through town, she looked around with her amethyst eyes at all the things she was going to miss in this city. The main thing she would miss would be hanging out with her friends at the movie theater and the mall, doing girlish things that would make boys want to puke their lunches out from being nearby. Of course, she would also miss her friends, Hanami, Kagami, and Fubuki Yukikaze, though Athrun Zala would possibly count on the list if he could only find time to say goodbye to her properly. There would only be one chance to say goodbye, so to speak, and she didn't want to waste it.

_'Hanami-chan… Kagami-chan… Fubuki-chan… Athrun-kun…'_ she thought in sorrow. _'When will we see each other again? For that matter, _where_ will we see each other again, anyway?'_

It was when she was walking through the shopping district of Copernicus City that she discovered something odd about the area that wasn't like it was before. The fact of the matter was, there wasn't anyone shopping or anything, enough to confuse people into believing that it was a ghost town of the old United States of America during the Gold Rush days. Shaking her head, she almost missed a glint of metal through her bangs of chestnut brown hair. Fortunately, she didn't miss the glint of metal, so she walked over to where it was at, picking it up off the ground.

When she took a closer look at it, she saw it was like a mirror, showing her slightly tanned creamy skin, her eyes, and her hair; even showing her clothes that hugged her growing curves that matched her mid to high B-cup body. She wore a Japanese-style dark purple sleeveless kimono shirt with an obi-like belt and detached sleeves that reached from her elbows to her wrists, a hip-hugging pleated black miniskirt that went down to her upper thigh area, and a pair of three-inch heeled black knee-high boots. However, she didn't remember her body glowing like it was a star in a very literal sense.

_'Wait, what?!'_ she thought in alarm.

Looking at her body without the aid of the piece of metal, she saw that she wasn't glowing, even though she felt even more energized than she had ever since going to school on the moon. Not really knowing why that was the case, she looked all over, before she looked back at the reflective metal surface. This time, she also saw a tattoo-like mark on her forehead, one that looked a fair bit arcane if the nagging feeling she had was right.

_'There's no such thing as magic, though, right?'_ she thought in concern. _'If there was, then why is it hiding like it is now, instead of sharing its wonders with everyone else?'_

She didn't know what this would cause, but she knew that it was imperative to find someone in the area who could tell her what was going on around there, before she was driven crazy by the whole situation! As she started to dash around, to look for someone that would be willing to help her, she—

***CRASH!***

—crashed right into someone turning around the corner.

"Owie… that hurt," she said from the ground, before she got to her feet and looked at the person she ran into by accident. What she saw made her gape and even blush up a storm.

She saw a young man, who was roughly two years her senior if her eyes weren't playing tricks on her, even with his well-toned muscular body and being a good 15 centimeters or so taller. His tan tank top was shown to the immediate area, even though she was the only one to see it, as he tried to get his blue windbreaker all the way back on. His dark blue denim jeans showed off his muscles in that department, and his tan slip-on shoes were considerably nice looking. His short, black hair were a bit dusty from being on the ground, while his hazel eyes were spinning a slight bit from him colliding with someone.

"Hey, are you hurt?" she asked the young man, moving to help him up.

"Ugh… that goes to show that I should watch where I'm going," the young man said. When he saw her attempt to help him up, he smiled, saying, "Thank you, miss…?"

"Kira," she said. "Yamato Kira. You are?"

"Oh, right, I'm Zamu," the young man answered. "Uraki Zamu." With that, he accepted the help getting up.

"Kira-chan!" a trio of voices cried out from behind Kira and a fair distance away.

A trio of girls, clearly siblings by their common silver hair, ran up to Kira and Zamu, panting hard as they tried to catch their breath after their run. Two of them were twins, although they could be told apart by one's blue eyes and the other's red eyes. The blue-eyed twin wore a simple pale blue shirt and white hot pants to match, while the red-eyed twin wore a similar red shirt and black hot pants, both starting to show signs of development in their C-cup busts and flaring hips. Both of them wore their hair in the exact same wavy style going down to their thighs as well. The final member of the trio sported a white shirt and long blue jeans, and long, straight silver hair going down to her waist, with a pair of small, long ponytails hanging off the sides. She was clearly the younger of the trio, judging by her slightly shorter height and her less obvious B-cup bust only just starting to show.

"When were you going to tell us?" the red-eyed twin shot a glare at Kira as she put her hands on her hips angrily.

"Huh? Tell you what?" Kira asked, a bit oblivious.

"That you… you were leaving…" the other, blue-eyed twin gasped out between gulps of air. "We… we were just… at your… house…"

"Your parents told… us…" their younger sister was leaning against a wall in a similar state of exhaustion.

Kira's eyes widened, before she shook her head and said, "I was actually going to tell you guys when I found you! I'm sorry for not being at the house by the time you found out, though I do wish we could still be together, especially since we're like sisters in that regard."

The red-eyed twin sighed and relaxed her posture as she walked over to Kira. "Heliopolis is a nice place though, even if it's a little far away."

"Yeah…" Kira said. "Hanami-chan, Kagami-chan, Fubuki-chan, thank you for finding me here. I'll be sure to send you three some souvenirs or a postcard every once in a while, to share how life's going."

"Oh, you wo-won't be needing to…" Hanami, the blue-eyed twin breathed as she tugged at her shirt's collar and fanned herself.

"Huh? Why not?" Kira asked, curiosity getting the better of her.

"We'll be right there… with you then…" the younger silverette, Fubuki grinned. "Our parents apparently… decided to do the same thing… yours did… by pure coincidence…"

"We'll be moving to Heliopolis as well!" the red-eyed twin, Kagami chirped as she pulled Kira into a hug.

Kira, glad that she asked what she did, had tears about to flow in her eyes. She moved an arm around Kagami and said, "Thank you, you three… I don't want to know what would happen if I never had you at my side."

It was at that point that Zamu noticed the piece of metal in Kira's other hand. "Excuse me, Kira-san," he said, getting their attention. "Where did you find that metal piece?"

"Oh, this?" Kira asked, lifting the hand with the metal in it. "I found it near a corner of the shopping district back behind my friends… oh, right." Moving herself out of the hug Kagami put her in, she said, "Zamu-san, these are my friends, Yukikaze Hanami, Kagami, and Fubuki." As she named the three, she pointed at the trio, giving him an idea of who was who. "Guys, this is Uraki Zamu, who I just met a short bit ago by… well… accidentally running into him."

"Running into someone by complete accident? That's quite rare of you, Kira-chan," Kagami grinned as she turned to face the sole male there. "I'm Yukikaze Kagami, nice to meet you!"

"I'm… Yukikaze… Hana-Hanami…" Hanami blushed and stuttered slightly as she met the stranger's eyes, but bowed politely anyway.

Their twintailed younger sister introduced herself last, "And I'm Yukikaze Fubuki."

"Right," Zamu said with a nod. "My name's Uraki Zamu, native of the Orb Union, and all around traveller with a passion for the supernatural. Now…" He turned to face Kira again, and said, "I was wondering where that went. It's meant to scout people with the right… credentials, so to speak. You just need to look into it three times separately to know if you've got the right credentials."

"Well… I looked into it twice already, both times seeing a bright glow as bright as a star," Kira admitted. "Coincidentally, on the second time, I saw a strange marking on my forehead… one that looked like a circular rainbow with a bright white line next to it."

Zamu's eyes widened, before saying, "You need to look into it one more time!"

"Huh?" the four girls voiced as one.

"Just, please, do it!" Zamu ordered.

"O-kay, Zamu-san, if you insist," Kira relented. Taking a look into the metal, she saw the same two things as before, only there was a pair of wings like a hybrid of an angel and a devil as well. "I seem to have an angelic and demonic wing each," she said, looking back up at Zamu. "Is that normal?"

"Umm, Kira-chan, are you sure you're not hallucinating?" Kagami asked worriedly as she looked into the piece of metal too. "Ooh, shiny… By any chance, Hanami-chan, I'm not glowing like a star am I?"

"No-Nope…" Hanami edged in closer for a look before blinking and rubbing her eyes and looking at herself as well. "Huh?"

"Hanami-nee, really?" Fubuki leaned in for a look as well before retreating, rubbing her eyes and looking at it again. "I'm glowing too…"

"In order," Zamu said, getting their attention. "Kira-san, what's your genetic status? Do you know?"

"Er… I'm a first generation Coordinator," Kira admitted. "Why do you ask?"

"Newtypes are the only ones with angelic wings that appear on the third look," Zamu explained. "Coordinators have devil wings and nothing else, Enhanced Naturals have devil wings and halos, while Naturals just have halos. To know that a first generation Coordinator is also a Newtype… intriguing! And she's an All Rounder, too…" As if suddenly remembering something, he said to the Yukikaze siblings, "Oh, right. Could you three look into the metal two more times and tell me what you see?"

"Alright…" Hanami took a deep breath as she looked into the piece of metal again. "Um, I see a tri-triangle on my forehead… it's coloured silver, blue and yellow… and I see the same wi-wings as Kira-chan… and I'm also glo-glowing like a star..."

"Basically the same for me, but the triangle is… dark gray, green and red," Kagami nodded as she checked behind her only to sigh as she didn't find anything on her back. "Damn, would be cool if I had those wings."

"I don't see a triangle on my forehead though," Fubuki gently touched a hand to her forehead as if checking to see if it was really there. "I see an X… it's ice blue and a very bright white… Otherwise it's exactly like Kira-chan, Hanami-nee and Kagami-nee described it."

"Aether… that's a rather rare element…" Zamu breathed out. Upon seeing the looks of confusion, he cleared his throat and said, "Anyway, what you four did was the only way to unlock your magical potential, which might sound crazy, but, believe me, it's the truth. The main reason why there's not that many Mages is because there's only so many of those Mystic Reflectors… it's a pain to make more of them, and the ones already in service tend to break after fifty years of carbon life. That particular metal is slated to live for another five years, actually."

Kagami blinked a few times in confusion, a look that was mirrored by her twin perfectly. "So… is this something like what you see in those movies? If red means fire, does that mean I'm going to be able to toss fireballs around?" she mimed throwing a baseball.

"After training, yes," Zamu said with a nod. "Of course, there's also the problem of what school of magic you fall under. Basic elemental spells are universal to every school, but there are different schools of magical thought involved. There's Abjuration, Conjuration, Divination, Enchantment, Evocation, Illusion, Necromancy, and Transmutation. You can specialize in up to two of them, or you can be a Universalist, which means none of them. Abjuration's for wards and barriers, Conjuration's for summoning stuff, Divination is remote viewing, farseeing, and using magic to explore a good number of places that haven't been explored, Enchantment is controlling and manipulating the minds of your victims, Evoking is the more advanced form of elemental spells as well as the ability to create and destroy with magic, Illusions are for making things look real or even different, Necromancy… ugh, don't like that one, but it's for creating undead armies most of the time, and Transmutation's like what you know as Alchemy in works of fiction."

Fubuki exchanged a few cautious looks with Hanami and Kagami before tentatively raising her hand. "Umm… can I ask a question?"

"Yes, Fubuki-san?" Zamu asked. "What is it?"

"Which… school of magical thought would Empathy be classified as?" the twintailed silverette asked hesitantly.

"Actually, that's classified by the Aether element and the Magical Traits you were born with that had to be unlocked," Zamu explained. It was a few seconds later when his eyes widened. "Wait, you mean you're an Empath that didn't wait to have their magical potential unlocked?"

Fubuki's reply came in the form of a small nod. "Since I was young, I've been able to… catch glimpses of what other people are feeling. It only got better as I grew up, but I still can't quite control it."

Hanami laid a hand gently on her little sister's shoulder. "She's ha-hated crowds since she got the ability be-because she... ends up re-reading every single person…"

"We have to carry some painkillers for her headaches whenever we go somewhere with a lot of people," Kagami rummaged in her handbag for a few moments before coming out with a box of Panadol. "And quite honestly, she's been dreading her puberty, since if our genes are anything to go by, she's going to get an awful lot of dirty looks then… and accompanying thoughts."

Zamu almost facepalmed at that. "Well, time to work on controlling her Empathy," he said. "The main thing about Magical power is that it's mainly a matter of self-control and self-will. I haven't seen enough Empaths to know how that works, but all the training manuals I have say that one needs to have a certain amount of discipline to start controlling their Magic effectively, which means you might need to start practicing breathing exercises and such." As if to elaborate, he took a deep breath through his nose, and exhaled through his mouth.

"Um, Zamu-san?" Kira asked.

"Yes?" Zamu asked back, looking at Kira.

"What's an All Rounder?" Kira asked.

Zamu sighed, saying, "An All Rounder is someone who can use all eight common elements. Fire, Ice, Thunder, Water, Wind, Earth, Light and Shadow. They can also have up to two other elements as part of their repertoire, if they're lucky. Since you have Aether as well as the common eight, that means you have the Empathy trait, but hopefully not to the same degree."

Kira nodded. "Right… thank you, Zamu-san," she said.

"My pleasure, Kira-san," Zamu said.

Fubuki suddenly started and pulled her phone out from her pocket to check the time. "Hanami-nee, Kagami-nee, otou-san and oka-san are asking us when we'll be back to help with the packing…"

"It's that late already!?" Kagami whipped her phone out to check as well. "Dammit. I guess we gotta go. Sorry, Zamu-san, we'd love to stay and chat more, but we really have to go…"

"Oh, you're moving from here? Where to?" Zamu asked, before he reached into his windbreaker and pulled out a bag. "Well, depending on when I see you four next, here's a Bag of Holding for you four to use. It has some beginner books on the subjects of the Magical Schools of Thought, as well as an in-depth guide book to the magical community. You'll most likely need the last book more, but I will need to books and the Bag back later… just when I see you again, thenabouts."

"A Bag of Holding?" Kagami raised an eyebrow skeptically before opening the bag and looking into it. "Ah, right, magic," she muttered when she realized the interior of the bag was much bigger than it looked on the outside.

"Yeah, I don't know how it works, either," Zamu said, shrugging. "Well, I guess I'd better hit the road, myself. I'm travelling around the Earth Sphere for right now, though I might end up settling in L3 for a bit, if anything."

"We're actually headed to Heliopolis though… Can we have your number in case we need to contact you?" Fubuki quickly asked desperately, as she wanted to get her powers under control quickly.

With a raised eyebrow, Zamu said, "I… guess so. Be warned, though: I'm not likely to pick up when you need me to, unless you know how to divine the right time to call me." With that, he gestured for Fubuki to hand him her phone.

"I'll be studying it hard," Fubuki assured as she handed her phone over and quickly grabbed the book on Divination from the bag to glance through.

With a few motions on the phone, Zamu added his number into Fubuki's phone. "There you go," he said, handing her phone back to her.

"Right…" Fubuki pretty much had her attention buried in the book as she took her phone back and stowed it in her pocket.

"Oh, right, the Mystic Reflector I picked up," Kira said, turning to give it back to Zamu.

"Keep it," he said, shocking the others. "I have a spare on hand. Besides, you might need it more than I do, you four." Turning to walk away, he said, "I'll see you later." With that, he walked off and around the corner he appeared from.

"Later, Zamu-san!" Kira called out, a blush appearing on her cheeks.

Kagami smirked as she noticed the blush and made a mental note to start hunting down more blackmail material on her best friend. "Kira-chan, are you having a fever or something? Your face is getting a bit flushed," she teased, feigning innocence.

"H-huh? I don't _feel_ like I have a fever… what brought _this_ on?" Kira asked Kagami.

"Nothing~" Kagami started whistling innocently as she shot a subtle glance in the direction Zamu had gone in.

Fubuki, actually having sensed Kira's blossoming affection, rubbed her thighs together slightly as she herself blushed too.

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><p><span><em>January 3rd, Cosmic Era 69<em>

"Man… what a drag," Kira, whose outfit hadn't changed much, except to account for her increased sizes (like high DD-cup breasts), during the past two years, said to her friends. Her body was now toned in an athletic form, showing the world that she exercised and kept a figure, to boot. "Who knew our sensei was such a slacker?"

"Walk into class, dump all the work on us, write instructions on the board, leave the class..." Fubuki grimaced as she looked through the code scrolling down the terminal's screen. Over the years she had swapped her older shirt and jeans combo for a gray blouse with a low U-neck showing a hint of her now D-cup bust and detached sleeves, black hot pants with yellow stripes going around them, and yellow fingerless gloves as her confidence in handling her empathic powers grew.

"You'd think they'd hire better senseis than this," Kagami agreed as she scanned across the instructions that she had copied onto her terminal. By far the boldest of the Yukikaze siblings, she had eschewed the undershirt and bra that usually went with her dark red half-jacket, opting to leave the bottom part unbuttoned to show her underbust, which went quite well with the male crowd considering she had grown to a F-cup bust. She also wore a black pleated thigh-length miniskirt paired with knee-high black boots, while wrapping her arms in a pair of black evening gloves with red stripes. Overall her state of dress also showed off the toned body she had gotten from her training in Aikido and Kendo. "I mean, he just dumped everything on us without so much as an explanation…"

"Well, in any case," Kira said, holding up a stack of papers. "When this is done, we're getting back to proper practice… and I have an idea for a prank to pull on a couple of people that could easily count as Ace pilots later on."

"Oooh, count me in," Kagami cackled and rubbed her hands together in glee. "Who are we pranking this time?"

"Please don't go over-overboard…" Hanami pleaded, looking up from her own stack of work. Her twin had managed to get her into a slightly bolder set of clothes than she usually dared to wear that consisted of a white camisole under a blue half-jacket that hinted at the top of her F-cup bust, matched with a pale blue miniskirt, thigh-high white leggings, and black boots."I still remember the last time you sa-sabotaged that guy's pants AND underwear… I don't think I'll be able to get that si-sight out of my head."

"Oh, who we're pranking are Rau Le Creuset and Mu La Flaga, by means of sabotaging their email accounts to treat viruses like safe files, and viceversa," Kira said with sadistic glee.

"You forgot to mention giving their primary email addresses to the fangirls," Kagami pointed out, further fueling the fire. "And disabling their spam filters."

"Oh, right, that too," Kira said, nodding in appreciation.

"I shall never peek into the head of a fangirl ever again," Fubuki shuddered in fear, recalling the first, and last time she had ever done that out of curiosity. "It's… traumatizing."

"Oh, right… you don't like that sort of fangirl, the kind that wants to bed their favorite stud of a man," Kira said, understanding where Fubuki was coming from, even as she went back to work. "Then again, what about the fangirls of those perverted gay mangas?"

"Just as bad," the younger silverette made a face. "I don't like fangirls, period. Did you know there's apparently a fan club for each of us? Some of them even girls?"

Hanami and Kagami just stared slack-jawed at their younger sister, unable to even formulate a good response for that.

Kira, who was leaning back in her seat in the gazebo at the time, fell to the ground behind her upon hearing that.

"Kira-chan! Hanami-chan! Kagami-chan! Fubuki-chan!" a male voice called out from a fair distance away.

"How are you guys holding up with Mako-sensei's assignment?" a female voice called out from the same distance and direction as the male voice.

With that, Kira righted herself and looked at the two heading their way. The male of the two, a young man with coffee brown hair and steel green eyes, was wearing a pale green button up shirt over a blue undershirt with grey pants and black shoes. The female of the two, a young woman with honey brown hair and aqua green eyes, wore an orange and cream sleeveless dress with almost shoulder-length detached orange sleeves and had tennis shoes on.

"About as well as we can with the level of instruction he gave us," Kagami waved a few of her papers in the air, deciding to try and forget about their previous topic of conversation. "Kira-chan's really good at digging up the tutorials for it on the net though, thankfully."

"Wait, Mako-sensei's been ripping off internet lessons that can be done with tutorials?!" the male shouted. "Where can we find the tutorials?"

"Sorry, Tolle-kun," Kira apologized. "They're super-secret tutorials that only I can find without getting in trouble."

"Don't tell me you've been hacking the Morgenroete servers again…" Fubuki whispered in Kira's ear fearfully.

Kira simply shook her head to say that she hadn't.

"ZA-ZAFT servers?" Hanami supplied helpfully.

"Huh? What are you guys talking about?" Tolle Koenig asked.

"Oh, it's a prank we're going to be pulling on someone in the Zodiac Alliance of Freedom Treaty militia," Kira said, misdirecting the truth with another truth. "Not only that, but the same prank will be pulled on a member of OMNI Enforcer."

"Huh… that's something," the female said. "Did you four already figure out how to prank the two?"

"Yep, but we're not spoiling you about it, you'll just get to see the results," Kagami grinned as she pulled out her terminal and started hovering her fingers over the keyboard in anticipation.

Kira nodded, before she whispered to Hanami, "Yes, I hacked the ZAFT servers, plus the At-Fed Pentagon… at the same time. The tutorials came from the ZAFT servers, while I integrated some At-Fed stuff into this as a side project."

Fubuki shook her head in exasperation, but continued working anyway. "Kira-chan is scary," she muttered under her breath, a sentiment that Hanami agreed with by nodding.

"Oh, onee-chan! There you are!" a female voice called out from past Tolle and his female friend, causing everyone else to look in that direction. A young woman the same age as Fubuki, with blue hair and amethyst eyes, arrived at the gazebo. She was wearing a green western-style sleeveless low U-necked shirt that fit snugly over her growing bra-less high C-cup bust, a hip-hugging pleated blue mini-skirt that reached her lower thighs, and red sneakers. "Okaa-san wanted me to tell you that your Kenjutsu training has progressed far enough to warrant the next level of training materials, but only if you can keep up the pace at school and the Shitō-ryū dojo for the next week." As if noticing everyone else, she said, "Oh hello, Tolle-san, Mir-chan, Hanami-chan, Kagami-chan, Fubuki-chan."

"Thanks, Kyou," Kira said to her little sister.

"Kyou-chan!" Fubuki grinned as she waved at her best friend's little sister, who also happened to be one of her best friends too. "What brings you here? I thought you'd still be in class!"

"Well," Miriallia Haw, the female that arrived with Tolle, spoke up. "It seems you didn't hear yet. She's transferring into our class, due to her high grades in all the required subjects."

"That's great, Kyou-chan!" Kagami grinned, sharing a high-five with Kyou. "It seems like we really have the cream of the crop in our families, eh Kira-chan?"

"Yeah, that's right!" Kira replied, happy at the news as well. "I hope that you don't end up getting asked out for a date at your young age, though, Kyou," she said, looking her little sister in the eye.

"Huh? It's possible to be asked out at my age?" Kyou asked, confused.

"I forgot to mention this, but I'm pretty sure Kyou-chan also has a fan club of her own," Fubuki whispered in Kira's ear. "We'll watch out for each other though, don't worry too much."

"Uh-oh…" Kira said, worried for her little sister more. Focusing on her little sister, she said, "Kyou, please, come talk with me before you accept dates."

"Okay, onee-chan," Kyou said with a smiling nod.

"For your information, Kyou-chan, we've already had to… _help _Fubuki-chan turn down some of the more… _forceful _ones," Kagami pointed out, grimacing as she recalled the times when Fubuki had been accosted by hormonal males. "Believe it or not, some people really ARE interested in that kind of stuff at this age."

"Uh… really?" Kyou asked, worried for her safety and her virginity, with equal importance for both.

Hanami nodded sagely. "She's be-been putting her stun gun to good use. We could build ano-another one…"

Kira coughed into her hand, getting everyone else's attention. "In any case, why don't we head back to class? There's still some time left in the day before I have to go to Martial Arts class, and I need to talk with the headmaster about us getting a new sensei, so that's a win-win."

"I still have time before Kendo club too," Kagami shot a glance at the bag she always carried around that contained the two nanocarbon shinais she used for her Kendo training. "Best we go in a group, I'm starting to understand why Fubuki-chan is so afraid of fangirls and fanboys now."

With a shudder, the others agreed, so they headed back to class.

On the way back to class, however, they ran into a trio of girls that were part of a clique of fashion lovers. The main one, a young woman with dark red hair and steel blue eyes, was heard arguing with her friends, "I'm totally serious, it's nothing like that!"

"Yeah?" friend one said skeptically. "You're lying."

"C'mon! Why don't you just come out and admit it?" friend two demanded.

"I told you two, there's nothing going on between Sai Argyle and I!" the first girl repeated, anger filling her tone.

Fubuki arched an eyebrow as she quickly scanned the red-haired woman's thoughts and sighed. "She's telling the truth, girls," she quickly cut in before her friends could anger her.

"Huh?!" the two friends look at Fubuki in shock, while the other member of the clique looked confused by the intervention. "How do _you_ know that there's nothing going on between the two? Sai even wrote to her earlier today!"

"Our little sister here was trained to read body language, you can trust her," Kagami patted Fubuki's shoulder softly as she lied smoothly, using their well-practiced cover story for her empathy.

"Every little twitch of your facial muscles, the way your stance changes as you argue your truth, it all tells a story, you know," Fubuki nodded. In a way, it was quite true - she _had_ read into body language and learned enough about it to tell what people were feeling even without her abilities.

"Uh…" the friends said, dumbfounded by that revelation.

The third member, however, said, "Thanks for stepping in, Fubuki-san… I _really_ need to practise honorifics outside of English, so I don't know if I got it right."

"I don't quite mind the English honorifics, although I feel they don't quite… convey the level of the relationship between people," Fubuki shrugged. "I mean, it's just Miss, Mr, and Mrs… not like the Japanese ones where we refer to people we are close to with -chan, -kun, and people we don't really know, or want to be polite to, with -san. And we just drop it for people we're _really_ close to."

Blinking, the redhead said, "I didn't really know that was the case. Thanks, Fubuki-san… uh, is there permission required for changing the honorific needed? I want to address you with -chan."

"Not really, I'd be happy to refer to you with -chan too… uh…" Fubuki paused awkwardly when she realized she didn't have her name.

"Flay," Kira whispered to Fubuki. "Flay Allster, the daughter of George Allster, though the apple fell further from the tree than normal."

"Flay-chan," Fubuki finished quickly, sensing the discomfort in Flay at the mention of her father's name.

"Alright," Flay said, nodding. "Also… I don't want to be associated with my father, given the words he says about people born with modded genetics. I hope you understand."

"Well…" Hanami shifted uncomfortably as she poked her pointer fingers together nervously. "We-We are Coordinators too…"

With a quirked eyebrow, Flay asked, "Does it matter how you were born? You're still a human being."

Kyou nodded at hearing that. "Considering I'm an Enhanced Natural, I can understand," she said.

"Couldn't have said it better myself, Flay-chan," Kagami grinned. "We're all human, and in the end that's what matters the most."

It was at that time that Flay's friends finally calmed down enough to pester her to get going on the shopping trip they were planning to take, while a separate pair of cars arrived to take Kira and friends to the Heliopolis Technical College.

* * *

><p><span><em>February 2nd, Cosmic Era 70<em>

In a secret meeting room on the Moon, inside of Copernicus City, a holographic group of 22 men and women gathered to discuss a dangerous plot.

_"__Is everyone ready?"_ one of the men asked, his face blurred out and the roman numerals XXI superimposed over it in place. Receiving a chorus of replies in the affirmative, he turned his face towards the table in the center of the room, which was shaped like a giant deck of cards._ "Then let the 628th meeting of the Council begin."_

_"__We have received reports that a peace gathering led by the United Nations is planning to talk with the _inferiors_ about their becoming independent,"_ a woman with the roman numerals VI over her blurred face said. _"We mustn't let that happen, no matter the cost of the secrecy rules."_

A man with XV over his face raised his head. _"Justice, would it be possible for you to ramp up your country's production of nuclear fuel? I believe we may have found a use for all that uranium you've been mining."_

A man with XI over his face nodded. _"I was mainly having the uranium mined because my country needs power that can't be gathered from Space or elsewhere, but this takes precedence, I'd say. We'll supply a scapegoat organization with the needed nuclear power to destroy the_ inferiors _that are in L5, and they'll be more than happy to take the fall for us, even going as far as to claim it was divine punishment on our foes,"_ he said.

_"__I assume you are referring to the organization called… Blue Cosmos, right?"_ a woman with XVI on her face rested her head on her crossed hands._ "They are extremists. Should we fail to control them, the results could prove most disastrous for us as well."_

_"__Not to worry,"_ Justice said, waving off the concern. _"Azrael is manipulable, not the sort of person we'd need to worry about, in that regard. All we need to do is plant a suggestion in his mind, and he'll take the bait and wage our war for us."_

_"__A war we will likely lose, Justice,"_ another man, this time with X superimposed on his face pointed out. _"Magic or not, the _inferiors_ have superior technology in their _mobile suits_. We must find a way to counter them, but above all we cannot show our hand to them yet."_

_"__Indeed, Wheel of Fortune,"_ the leader of the Council, The World (otherwise known as XXI), said. _"No matter what, the_ inferiors _must be dealt with, even by going as far as keeping them from learning how to use what little magic they have in their blood. Only a _Newtype _is far superior to anyone else from the Council, but those haven't been confirmed as a real genetic type yet."_

_"__That being said, we have several teams of scryers hunting for any _Newtypes_ in existence, but with so little information, it is hard for them to find anything on them,"_ The Magician, who was a man with the Roman numeral I on his face said. _"The most we have been able to find are a few traces in Copernicus, but they have already gone cold."_

_"__Such a shame,"_ The High Priestess, a woman with the roman numerals II on her face, said. _"We are lacking all the needed manpower to find the _Newtypes_, especially since we can't figure out who's a _Newtype_ and who's not."_

_"__The World, should we find any of them, we must make attempts to recruit them. Their strength must be guided - they will make great weapons against the _inferiors_,"_ The Star, this time a woman with XVII on her face suggested.

_"__I agree with The Star, The World,"_ a young man with an N on his face, The Fool, said. _"Not only do we know that they're the strongest users of magic, they can also normally be rather… isolated, shall we say."_

_"__We must make haste in our attempts to trace them. There is no telling what the inferiors will do if they learn of the existence of _Newtypes _first," _The World quickly agreed. _"The Tower, we will need to invest more resources in locating them. We will have to make use of them in the times to come. Magician, you will need to work together with The Hierophant. Leave no stone unturned."_

_"__At once, The World,"_ Magician and The Hierophant said as one.

_"__Allow me to participate in the search as well, The World,"_ The Fool asked shortly. _"I promise you, my efforts will not be in vain."_

_"__Very well, The Fool, I'll permit it,"_ The World said with a nod. _"Is there any other business to attend to this time?"_

_"__There are the traces of foreign magical energy we have recently found in Lagrange 3, The World. We are working on identifying the source of it and tracking it,"_ The Hanged Man, a man sitting in a wheelchair with the roman numerals XII over his face added. _"Its signature is not registered in our database."_

_"__Hmm… it appears that we need to double our efforts to recruit a high ranking Noble of Orb into our group, so that they can help us with finding the signature in L3,"_ The World said. _"For now, I will look into the matter, but we don't want to dilly dally. Is there any further business to attend to?"_

There was an odd silence for several moments as the members of the group looked around at each other. Nothing was spoken for at least another half a minute before The Tower, the woman with XVI on her face spoke up,_ "There appears to be nothing else, The World."_

_"__Very well,"_ The World said. _"Meeting adjourned, everyone."_

* * *

><p><strong>Xamusel: Well, this sure proved to be exciting enough, right? The plot starts to come together in a whole new way, and we both have some good ideas for how this will turn out. We just need to collaborate our ideas for the end game of the story.<strong>

**Now… how about I introduce you to AstralXYZ?**

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><p><strong>AstralXYZ: Hullo there! I'm Xamusel's co-author for this fanfic, and I'm quite happy to say that it's been a pleasure, and is probably going to continue being so, working with him. I have to say though, this is probably my first time working on a plot this complex though, and it really is a nice experience. Thanks for reading, and I hope you stay on with us for the rest of the ride! I can promise you it's going to be quite exciting!<strong>

* * *

><p><strong>Xamusel: That it will, everyone, that it will. Now… any original mecha we'll be using will start being introduced next chapter, so don't think we'll be ignoring the origin point of Gundam, y'hear me? Well, in any case, we'll see you in the next chapter… this took a lot less time than I thought to write this chapter, but it might take more time overall to finish the whole thing, given our time zone differences.<strong>

**Well… later!**


	2. False Peace

**Xamusel: Okay, this is going to be a way longer chapter than the previous one, but only because To the Beginning was meant to help set things up. If you guys want to ask questions regarding the story, please, do so. Astral and I will answer as best we can. We'll answer these questions at the end of the chapter, mind you, not the top.**

**Well, anyway, time to get started on this chapter!**

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><p><span>Chapter 2<span>: False Peace

* * *

><p><span><em>January 25th, Cosmic Era 71<em>

In a park gazebo near the Heliopolis Technical College, Kira, who had grown to be 165cm with an H-cup bust at age 16, was busy working with her friends and her little sister on homework that was assigned to them by their current sensei. When it was known that their previous sensei was inadequate for the job, he was forced to pack his bags and leave Heliopolis, especially after a background check proved he was anti-Coordinator to the level of pro-Blue Cosmos. This led them to their current sensei, Kato. While he also dumped a lot of work on them, he at least gave a general idea of what to do and why.

"So, girls," Kira said, hoping to break the ice their work caused. "What do you think of Kato-sensei? How much better or worse is he compared to Mako-sensei?"

"At least he advises us… somewhat," Kagami scratched her head as she stared at her terminal and then reclined backwards,which caused a few passing students to double take as her breasts visibly bounced under her half-jacket. She hadn't changed her outfit much during the years, although she had to get larger sizes since her bust had grown to a massive I-cup and would've fallen out otherwise. "Is it just me or is this a lot more advanced than it should be? The values don't quite add up."

"Yeah, onee-chan, the values don't add up as well as they should," Kyou said, leaning back in her seat and causing her high F-cup breasts to jiggle and bounce as she did so. Over the years, she switched from a western-style shirt to an amethyst Japanese-style one with a green obi-like belt, though she kept the other clothing choices. "I mean, it might _seem_ like a power loader's OS, but there's something… off, you could say, about the programming."

"Well, I can quite safely tell that Kato's hiding something from us. I've even asked him how we should do some of this programming, but he doesn't know how to do it himself either," Fubuki pointed out, having put her empathy to good use. She had also grown taller, and her bust had filled out to a high G-cup size, which she was still slightly disappointed with. Her outfit hadn't changed much either, she had only added a black vest over her outfit, left unbuttoned.

"I can definitely a-agree with that," Hanami nodded, engrossed in her own work as her fingers flew across her keyboard so fast they appeared to be a blur. Similarly to her twin, she had grown to 167cm tall, and now sported an I-cup bust. Her outfit was a little more risque now, with a slightly lower neckline that exposed more of her still-developing cleavage, and she had started cropping the bottom slightly to show a bit of her midriff. "It's just… hard, even for o-our level…"

"Is it just me, or am I the only one to fully understand the values as needed?" Kira asked, unsure of why she was able to fully comprehend the assignment. "It seems like… I dunno, maybe we need to make a Mobile Suit's OS?"

The Yukikaze siblings and Kyou froze as one for several moments before they started scanning back through the lines of code they had been working on. Their expressions only got more and more angry as they realized exactly what their professor had tricked them to work on, the former even going as far as releasing a hint of their trademark killing intent. Eventually, they stopped and closed their terminals, shaking in repressed rage.

"Can I murder Kato?" Kagami growled, the temperature around her rising slightly as she unconsciously tapped into her fire element.

"Can I shred him to pi-pieces after you're done?" Hanami's hair was billowing in an odd wind that had kicked up around her.

"Can I dump him into the Arctic Ocean after that?" Fubuki chipped in even as the air around her abruptly cooled.

"Oi, I want to make sure he gets turned into shark food before he gets dumped into the Arctic Ocean, Fubuki-chan!" Kyou yelled indignantly, even getting a bout of static-like lightning to appear around her hands.

"No need to worry about that for now, girls," Kira said sagely. "Especially since the goal was to make it so that just about _anyone_ can pilot what the OS is for… most likely for Orb's defense platform against invaders." It was at that time that she finally paid attention to Kyou's hands. "Kyou! What happened to your hands?!"

"Huh?" Kyou asked intelligently, before she looked at her hands. "Oh, so it _does_ work like you said, onee-chan," she said.

"You mean you looked into the Mystic Reflector I'm holding onto?" Kira asked her little sister with a sigh. "Kyou-imouto-chan, we're going to need to ask that you train under us one of these days, to make sure that you can use your powers more effectively. You'll thank us for it later, I guarantee it."

Kyou blinked, before she nodded. "Yes, onee-chan! I'll be sure to learn under you and the others."

It was at that moment that a young man of 18 showed up, one who suspiciously looked like Zamu from before he left the four friends alone. "Excuse me, madams," he said, getting their attention. "Do you know where I can find Yamato Kira, Yukikaze Hanami, Yukikaze Kagami, and Yukikaze Fubuki? I was hoping to speak with them on a particular subject, but I don't know where they went."

The girls shared a few looks before everyone except Kyou raised their hands. Fubuki was pretty much openly gaping at the young man as well, since she had taken a quick dive into his head and immediately realized who he was. Kagami had a wide grin on her face, Hanami blushed slightly as she took in the sight, while Kyou just looked a little confused.

"Honestly, Zamu-san, how common is silver as a hair colour?" the red-eyed silverette giggled, having noticed Fubuki's expression and deduced his identity.

"Wait, seriously?!" Zamu exclaimed, stumbling backwards a bit but still standing upright. "Fubuki-san, you're the one that isn't near-identical to your sisters, right?" he asked, to make sure he got it right.

"Of course!" the younger silverette huffed indignantly. "I can't believe you'd just forget me like that!"

"Well, actually," Zamu started. "I just thought you'd be more self-conscious, what with your Empathy, Fubuki-san."

"It's all thanks to you telling me how to get it under control, Zamu-san," Fubuki smiled softly. "I practiced day and night just figuring it out. Now I can keep it off subconsciously until I need to use it."

"Ah, good," Zamu said with a nod. "Y'know, I thought the bit on your genetics was going to be an exaggeration, but it seems like you got a jumpstart on your puberty by that point… you look like you've matured greatly."

"Umm… thanks?" Fubuki crossed her arms over her chest and looked away shyly with a blush on her cheeks, not quite sure whether she should be feeling proud of the compliment or calling him out on being a pervert, although her subconscious was screaming at her to just accept it.

"No, really," Zamu said. "You and the others here look like you all matured past the point when I first met you… oh, right, who's miss blue hair?"

"Oh, this is Yamato Kyou, Kira's younger sister," Kagami quickly introduced the bluenette, who waved back. "And apparently she'll need to speak to you as well about that _particular subject_ you were talking about."

Blinking for a bit, Zamu looked at Kyou and asked, "What did you see in the mirror?"

"I saw that I glowed as bright as a star, I had a circular marking with a line next to it, and I had a halo and two opposing wings on my back," Kyou answered. "What does that mean?"

"Kyou-san," Zamu said. "What's your genetic type?"

"I'm an Enhanced Natural," she stated. "Why?"

"It seems that you five are lucky to be Newtypes, then," Zamu said, dropping his head.

Before Zamu could elaborate further, Tolle's voice could be heard, calling out, "Hey, guys! Kato-sensei's calling for everyone in his class to the classroom!"

Kagami sighed as she looked in the direction of the classroom with a disgusted expression. "Somehow I think that if I go to class now I might end up burning something accidentally. What do you guys think of skipping class?" She punctuated her feelings by opening her palm and making a small fireball pop into existence over it.

"Kagami-chan, we can't skip class now, not when the headmaster made it mandatory to go to class for the rest of the school year," Kira reminded. "That said, I'd like to skip it, but I also finish what I start."

"Can we just call in si-sick or something? I mean… we do need to ca-catch up with Zamu-san…" Hanami asked, wearing a slight blush as she looked at Zamu.

"And I thought you were the innocent honours student who always followed the rules, Hanami-nee…" Fubuki sighed, looking disappointed, although everyone could tell it was fake by the way the corners of her mouth curved upwards. "Kagami-nee must've corrupted you…"

"Kato-sensei knows we aren't sick, girls," Kira pointed out. "He makes it a point of habit to call and confirm if we are able to go to class or not."

"Awww, onee-chan! Quit being like Hanami-chan!" Kyou pouted.

Hanami wasn't quite sure whether to feel insulted or happy, so she settled with a low grumble and a disgruntled expression, "Muuuuuu…"

"Why don't I go with you?" Zamu asked, getting their attention.

"Well, I'm not sure if Kato-teme will allow it…" Kagami mused thoughtfully, a finger on her chin. "I guess we can try. Just gotta remember to hold my temper and just suck it up for now until we can get out of this…"

Zamu nodded at hearing that. "Okay, then it's settled," he said. "I'll go with you to your classroom. Besides… you have the bag with the books on hand, right?"

"Yeah, we do," Hanami reached into her bag and pulled out the deceptively small bag Zamu had given them.

"Good, because you'll need it still, so it seems," Zamu said. "Besides, I guess you'll need to be in class before anything else happens today."

"Oh? Like what?" Kira asked.

"Potentially? Try an attack by ZAFT," Zamu said, getting surprised looks from the other five.

Fubuki froze for a moment before she dove into the bag and came back out holding the book on Divination. "By any chance, are you…" she trailed off as she pointed at it.

Zamu's eyes widened in a near-comical manner. "Wait, seriously?! I was right?!" he questioned, before regaining his composure a couple seconds later. Clearing his throat, he said, "Yes, I study Divination as one of my chosen schools of thought. I just never thought that I would be correct about a wild guess."

"Actually I thought you really predicted it when you said it. So it was just a wild guess?" Fubuki sighed in relief. "You scared me for a moment there…"

"Hey, you never know, it could be that I hit the nail square on the head," Zamu said. "I've been known in the Council of Magi to do that by subconsciously tapping into the Divination school's powers, making it seem like a wild guess."

"I sure hope it's not true…" Hanami looked up at the artificial sky. "This co-colony is so peaceful…"

"By the way, what's the Council of Magi?" Fubuki raised an eyebrow at the foreign term.

Blinking, Zamu realized that he forgot to bring it up before. "The Council of Magi is an Order that exists solely because of an ancient order that was decreed by an ancient ruler, one that said humans needed to be brought into the loop of magic time and time again, in order to counteract a threat to the human race," he said. "For clarification purposes, I wish I knew what this threat was, but I don't… not just yet."

"Sounds rather… ominous," Kagami mused as she packed up her terminal and slid it into her bag.

"Still, how can we even begin to counter a threat to the human race if we just keep fighting with each other like this?" Fubuki sighed, her terminal just showing the end of a news report about the ZAFT attack on the Kaohsiung Mass Driver.

"I honestly wish we could quit fighting each other for at least one hour," Kira said. "If we don't have that hour to talk, then we'll never get anywhere."

"Yeah, onee-chan, that's true," Kyou said. "Still… we need to get to class, right?"

Hanami checked her watch and stared at it for a few seconds before quickly packing up her stuff as well. "We're running late!" she shouted in a panic, scrambling to pack up her papers and almost completely messing them up once or twice if her twin sister hadn't stepped in to help out.

At that moment, Miriallia showed up, saying, "Don't worry, guys. We're not running _that_ late, so we can still take a power walk to the car port." Looking at Zamu, she said, "Um, I get that you know my friends here, but we need to get going."

"Oh, don't worry, I'm going with," Zamu said. "I volunteered to go with them, mainly for personal reasons."

"Yeah, he's an… old friend of ours," Kagami explained, adding a subtle glance at Kira and smirking as she noticed the slight blush dotting her cheeks.

"Y…yeah, he is," Kira said, unable to get the feelings of love and lust out of her system. It was odd, to say the least, but she felt that she should know him more than she did, preferably in bed—

_'__Stop that! Where did _that_ come from?!'_ she thought, unaware of Fubuki reading her thoughts.

Fubuki had to suppress the urge to laugh when she picked up on the brunette's thoughts, somehow managing to turn it into a choking sound and a spit take that she directed off to the side to avoid hitting anyone.

"Um, Fubuki-chan, what's the matter?" Kyou asked the silverette her age.

"Your onee-chan is thinking dirty thoughts," Fubuki whispered in the younger Yamato's ear, making sure Kira couldn't hear it.

"Really? About who?" Kyou asked in a whisper the same volume. After a few seconds of silence, she said, "…never mind. I think I have an idea as to who."

Fubuki turned her gaze back to Zamu's back as they walked, wondering why she felt a little empty inside her. She couldn't be feeling jealous, could she? After all, they had only met the enigmatic man once before, and they knew next to nothing about him other than the fact that he knew about the existence of magic… How could she possibly start liking him in that state? Unknown to the younger member of the family, the older two were having similar thoughts as well.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, inside the docking bay of the Heliopolis space colony, a <em>Marseilles III<em>-class ship under the registry of _OES Crescent Star_ was slowly docking in place. Inside the ship in question, an old captain lifted his hat off, and said, "There you have it. This old ship has just completed its final mission. You served admirably as an escort, Lieutenant La Flaga. I am in your debt."

Mu La Flaga, a blonde haired man with blue eyes wearing a neutral uniform, turned to face the old captain and said, "Sir. I'm just glad we arrived without incident. Any ZAFT vessels in the vicinity?"

"We've spotted two, but it's no cause for alarm," the captain said. "They know they can't initiate _any_ hostile action once we're docked."

"Because it's neutral territory?" Mu asked rhetorically. "What a joke, that is."

With a bark of laughter, the captain said, "Well, it's thanks to them that our plans have progressed this far. We're fortunate that Earth has recognized Orb as a nation."

"Excuse us, captain," a pilot spoke up from the captain's right, causing the old man to look and see a group of eleven pilots saluting him. Returning the salute, he dismissed them, letting them go to inside the colony.

Mu turned to face the captain again, having watched the young men leave, and asked, "Think they can handle themselves alone on the ground?"

"I know they're young, but they're all top guns selected to be G-Pilots," the captain said, before shrugging. "They'll be just fine. However, someone like you would stick out like a sore thumb."

At that, Mu chuckled, before turning his attention to space.

* * *

><p>Behind the cover of a nearby asteroid, two ZAFT vessels were launching infiltration boats that headed for a maintenance shaft, the Green and Red Coats in commando suits waiting for their trip to be over so that they could do their job.<p>

On the bridge of one of the ZAFT vessels, the Commander of the team, Rau Le Creuset, said to the ship's captain as he floated to the tactical table, "Try not to look so frustrated, Ades."

"Well, I don't imagine it'd be too late to hear back from the council, at least…" Frederik Ades suggested, hoping to reason with his superior.

Rau simply picked up a photo from the tactical table and said, "It will be too late. I have a sixth sense about these things." With that, he tossed the photo, which looked like it was part of a Mobile Suit, over to Ades, before continuing, "If we don't seize the moment now, later we'll pay with our lives for our reluctance to take action. The Earth Forces' new Mobile Weapons… we must secure them before they attempt to move them."

* * *

><p>A young man with blue hair and emerald green eyes, wearing the ZAFT Red uniform, was looking out the window next to his seat in the infiltration boat he was riding in. His memories were currently at the forefront of his mind, more specifically at the time he had to leave Copernicus City on the moon, when he thought he got a promise out of his best friend to join him at the PLANTs.<p>

_Under a grove of cherry trees, the young man, wearing a green beret and a white long-sleeved shirt under a green sleeveless sweater, said to a young woman that looked suspiciously like Kira did four years prior, "The PLANTs _and_ Earth will see eye to eye. There will be no war." Extending his hands outward, the young woman did the same, as a robotic bird leapt towards the young woman's open hands from his own. "The evacuation doesn't mean a thing… you'll join me later in the PLANTs, right, Kira-chan?"_

With a sigh, the young man thought, _'Right… I still haven't seen her in the PLANTs yet. Kira-chan… where are you?'_

"Something on your mind, _tovarisch_?" a tall, muscular man with brown hair in a crew cut and a bit of stubble on his chin leaned against the wall beside him, also dressed in the same uniform.

"Hm?" the young man looked in his teammate's direction and sighed. "It's nothing, Andreyev," he said. "Just wondering how a friend of mine is doing."

"Ah, I see. A good friend of yours, eh? A girl, perhaps?" Andreyev grinned jovially, trying to get a reaction from the man.

"Stop bothering Athrun, Andreyev…" a young woman wearing her black hair in Chinese buns interrupted as she meticulously cleaned her combat knife with a cotton bud, every now and then stopping to look over it before blowing on it and nodding in satisfaction. "Give him some privacy."

"But a good comrade talks about his friends as well, no?" Andreyev Danilovich gestured grandly around him at the rest of the people in the ship. "Especially before we start our mission, knowing we could die for our motherland at any time!"

"I don't get how he's so upbeat about all this," a man with silver hair reaching his shoulders grunted as he slotted another bullet into the magazine he was holding.

"It's just the way he is, Yzak," a green-haired young man chuckled lightly as he looked at the muscular commando, who was still talking loudly at the top of his voice. "Maybe it's his way of coping with it all."

"Yeah, probably. Though if Athrun really is talking about a girl… I never quite expected it of him, but I'd really like to see at least a picture anyway. Think he carries one around with him, Nicol?" a blonde man with curly hair asked as he checked his rifle.

"I've never seen him carry anything of the sort around, Dearka. Honestly, I'm curious as well but I'd rather not pry too much into his past. If he wants to talk about it, he'll talk about it," the green-haired man shrugged, before he pushed off the floor to float in Athrun's direction.

"Isn't that knife shiny enough already, Li Ying?" Dearka Elsman turned his attention to the woman with her hair worn in Chinese buns, who was still cleaning her knife. "I mean, you're probably going to get it dirty again later, right?"

Huang Li Ying raised the knife in front of her face and turned it so that Dearka's face was reflected in its metallic surface. "The cleaner the cut, the better," she simply said before returning to cleaning the already-shiny knife.

The rust-orange haired commando of the group, who had steel-blue eyes, whistled lowly and in an innocent tune. "So, Athrun, care to explain who this 'Kira-chan' is you keep on having wet dreams about?" he asked after finishing the tune.

Athrun Zala looked at the final Redcoat and shouted, "I do _not_ have wet dreams of my best friend Kira-chan, Rusty!"

"Oh, _really_?" Rusty Mackenzie asked, grinning like the Cheshire Cat. "If that's the case, why do you need to change your boxers midway through lights out, then?"

"Oho, so it is a Kira-chan, eh? Very good, _tovarisch_!" Andreyev laughed heartily and gave the blue-haired commando a hard pat on the back, although it ended up as more of a smack. "You never know, she could end up as more than just a… best friend in the future, no?"

"I-it's not _like_ that!" Athrun retorted. "For all I know, she could be interested in someone else, and unable to return my feelings for her!"

"So you do have feelings for her!" Andreyev grinned like a cat that had gotten the cream. "Do not worry, Athrun, my friend… If you need any help, just ask! Far be it from me to deny a comrade his chance at finding a life partner!"

Li Ying sighed again and started rummaging in her backpack for a pair of earplugs.

* * *

><p>"A-CHOO!" Kira sneezed.<p>

"Bless you, onee-chan," Kyou said, handing Kira a hankie.

"Thanks, Kyou," Kira said, using the hankie and putting it away.

"Don't mention it, onee-chan," Kyou replied.

"Someone talking about you, Kira-chan?" Kagami asked as she walked along behind the pair of sisters.

"I think so," Kira answered. "If it turns out to be someone I know, then…"

"Birdy!" a mechanical bird called out, causing the group to look at Birdy, Athrun's gift to Kira.

"Oh? What's that?" Zamu asked, curious to the specifics, even as Birdy landed on Kira's shoulder.

"Something one of Kira's best friends made for her in the pa-past, when we were still at Copernicus," Hanami put her finger in front of its beak and let it gently nip at her. "Come to think of it, I wonder how A-Athrun-kun is doing in the PLANTs…"

"He'll be fine, Hanami-nee," Fubuki assured. "Granted, he hasn't contacted us in a long while though…"

"Well, I hope he contacts you soon," Zamu said with a nod.

Before much longer, the group made it to the car port, where a scene from two years ago was continuing.

"Why are you two still bugging me about this subject?!" Flay could be heard from the port. "I'm still serious that nothing's going on between Sai and I!"

"Oh, _really_?" friend number one asked, unconvinced this time. "In that case, what's with the letter from Sai's address?"

"_Again_, girls?" Fubuki groaned and massaged her temples gently as she entered the car port. "For the last time, Flay-chan is not even remotely interested in Sai Argyle!"

"Exactly as Fubuki-chan explained it!" Flay said. "I don't even know how it happened, but the letter wasn't even in Sai's handwriting!"

"Huh, maybe someone didn't have the guts to ask you out as himself?" Fubuki suggested with a raised eyebrow.

"That... does seem to be happening of-often these days..." Hanami mused. "I got a few of those be-before..."

"Actually, the letter said, 'Meet me at the car port by 1130 local time, without your friends'," Flay admitted, looking confused by the letter a lot.

"That... sounds really dangerous," Kagami frowned. "I wonder who sent it?"

"I honestly have no idea, Kagami-san," Flay answered. "I want to know who sent it, too, but—"

"Ah, by any chance are you Flay Allster, the daughter of George Allster?" a foreign voice called out.

As the group turned towards the source of the voice, a middle aged man got up from a bench he had been sitting on. He had dark brown hair tied in a short ponytail, and wore a white shirt under a brown baggy vest, matched with dark brown long cargo pants. He also had a name tag dangling from a chain around his neck together with a DSLR, which when combined with the portable data pad sticking out of one of his pockets, told the group he was a journalist of some kind.

"Would it be possible for me to ask you a few questions? Oh, sorry for not introducing myself, I'm…" he reached for his name tag, fumbling with it for a bit before showing it to the group, "…David Wazowski, a journalist from Earth, here to investigate the wonders of ORB's Heliopolis colony."

"Uh… come again?" Kira asked the journalist. "For starters, what publication are you with?"

"I'm with the Daily Scoop," David said, preparing to get on with interviewing Flay as he pulled out his datapad and set his camera up on a tripod he had been carrying around.

Fubuki could already sense Flay's growing discomfort as she subconsciously huddled up against her. "Umm, David-san, what are you interested to know about?" the redhead asked hesitantly.

"Well, for starters, your father is a very powerful politician back on Earth in the Atlantic Federation. I'd just like to know what you plan on doing after your graduation here. Are you planning on following in his footsteps?" David asked.

"Uh… where did that… come from?" Flay asked, even more uncomfortable.

"Well, you are his daughter, correct? Doesn't your father want you to succeed him in the political field?" the journalist hovered his pen over his datapad in anticipation.

Kagami was tapping her foot impatiently as she waited for the car to arrive, not quite comfortable around paparazzi either. Fubuki's brow was furrowed in confusion when she realized she couldn't get a good read on the journalist's thoughts, but she had an idea on how to pull her friend away from his grasp, seeing her still growing discomfort.

"Well… I…" Flay got out, more uncomfortable than before. "Is… there a point… to asking?"

"Of course! People are wondering how their future leader will be like!" David made a grand gesture with his hands outstretched. "Is she cool and charismatic? Or warm, with an aura of leadership that glows like the sun?"

While the "interview" was progressing, Flay's friends had a note written for her and left it with Kagami, leaving in one of the recently arrived cars shortly afterward. When the next car came up to the curb, the people there were oblivious to—

A woman cleared her throat, getting everyone else's attention. "If you're not getting in, mind if I do?" she asked.

Tolle, who had waited for Miriallia to get the others earlier, was the first to really interact with the woman. "Oh, we're sorry," he said. "Please, ignore the journalist for the Daily Scoop and get a car, alright?"

"Will do," one of the two men with her said, as they walked around the journalist. With that said and done, they managed to get into a car, and then drove off.

"We're running late!" A somewhat panicky Hanami quickly dragged a protesting Kagami into the next car available, the woman having broken her out of her momentary stupor at watching Flay being interrogated. She quickly motioned Zamu over to the same car as well, casting a short glance at Kira to see if she was showing any reaction.

Fortunately, Kira proved more than happy to get away from the overbearing journalist, and even moved to where the next car after the one available was to get in sooner.

Fubuki, on the other hand, grinned at the chance having presented itself. "Sorry, Wazowski-san, but we really need to get going, we do have a class coming up, right, Flay-chan?" she quickly put her arm on the redhead's shoulders, causing her to jump slightly as her brain connected the dots.

"O-Oh! Yes, sorry, Mr. Wazowski. I-I'll get back to you on that interview sometime else," Flay quickly cobbled together a not-so-sincere apology as she let the younger silverette lead her to the car, letting her shoulders sag in relief.

"Okay then, I'll see you… when I see you!" the journalist waved while he packed up his own gear quickly. Just as they reached the car, Fubuki and Flay looked back to check, but he was already gone by that time.

"Wh-where did the paparazzi go?" Flay asked.

"I have no clue, but he'd better stay away…" Fubuki growled as she helped Flay into the car with her sisters and Zamu in it, while watching Miriallia and Tolle move to wait with the Yamato siblings. "Are you okay?"

"H-huh? Yeah, I-I'm fine," Flay stammered out. "Mainly confused by the man, but I should be alright."

"You looked like you were getting very uncomfortable there though," Kagami turned around to look at Flay. "I know I would, and I still get that feeling when I walk into an area with lots of men and they all turn my way."

"Wouldn't that be because of your… state of dress?" Flay blinked.

"Hey, think of it this way," the red-eyed silverette grinned. "When I run into someone that doesn't stare and make me uncomfortable, that'll be the right one for me."

Flay blinked again. "Is that… right?" she asked. "Well, it sounds like you have a good standard, one that's not too high." With an annoyed sigh, she said, "I just want to know why Jessica and Misha took off without me earlier. We were going to go shopping for clothes… didn't want to miss the sales."

"They did write a note for you," Kagami passed her the note. "And no I didn't read it."

"Okay, thanks," Flay said, before reading the note out loud. "'Hey Flay, we went on ahead to save you money. Don't worry about paying us back, we're doing this of our own free will.' Well, that's nice of them, knowing that much."

"There's something else on the back," Fubuki pointed out helpfully.

"Hm?" Flay turned the note around. "'P.S. Please get a few bras next time'… wait, what?!"

"Um, Flay-chan, by any chance, are you…" Fubuki had a very good idea of what was going on, having done it herself for at least a few months. She directed a look at Flay's chest suspiciously.

Flay turned her head to follow Fubuki's gaze, before she connected the dots. "I-I'd rather not talk about it in the presence of a male that I hardly know," she said, feeling a fair bit uncomfortable.

"Understandable…" Fubuki nodded as she looked at her own chest too. "I used to do that before at some point too."

"What, bind your breasts?" Zamu asked curiously. "I think that going without a bra or breast bindings is a lot healthier on the female body overall."

Zamu's statement elicited a loud, embarrassed squeak from Fubuki and Flay, while Kagami had to look to one side to prevent Zamu from seeing her stellar blush, even as she cradled her own chest. Hanami, on the other hand, had tried to imagine herself going braless and almost immediately passed out with a similar blush that somehow managed to stay on her cheeks despite her unconsciousness.

"Za-Zamu you pervert!" Fubuki crossed her arms over her chest and turned away from the magician, blushing so red she could stop traffic, although on the inside she was already starting to consider going braless too. Beside her, Flay was blushing bright red as well, although she seemed just about ready to slap Zamu, only Fubuki sitting between them stopping her.

"Er… oops?" Zamu asked and stated at the same time. Muttering to himself after a few seconds, he said, "Okay, note to self: remember who's in the area with me before opening my mouth about embarrassing stuff, women's clothing especially."

"You better!" Fubuki huffed, reminding herself to take off her bra the next chance she had while wondering how the heck her elder sister had gotten used to the habit. Said elder sister was _still_ attempting to smack the blush off her own cheeks.

* * *

><p>"Onee-chan?"<p>

"Yes, Kyou?"

"What do you think they were talking about?"

"Who knows? I hope it's nothing embarrassing."

* * *

><p>Later, at the Kato lab, Tolle announced their presence to the rest of the class. "Hey!" he called out.<p>

Kagami had to consciously restrain her powers as she walked into the lab with a smile, hoping that they wouldn't have to deal with their sly bastard of a professor. She relaxed somewhat when he didn't appear to be there. "Sorry we're late!" she added.

Fubuki was squirming slightly behind her, having taken a short trip to the toilet earlier. She still didn't quite feel comfortable about removing her bra, although she had to admit it felt more freeing in a sense. She had noticed Hanami of all people doing the same thing too, and she was feeling… slightly miffed that she was a full 2 cups smaller than her, because the effect of her elder sister removing hers was a _lot _more obvious.

Or maybe it was just because she was making it _look _a lot more obvious by the way she was blushing, looking down at her bust more often and just plain moving in her usual way that made them jiggle a lot more.

Kira, who had gone without wearing a bra ever since her breasts first expanded, and thus, knew what it was like to go without one, simply said, "We were held up by a paparazzi showing up, plus running into a friend from a while ago before that."

"He-hello…" Flay was feeling more than a little out-of-place as she looked around at all the engineering equipment in the lab in awe.

"What would the paparazzi be looking for you for?" a short young man with black hair looked up from his terminal inquisitively.

"The man was looking for Flay-chan here," Kyou said, bringing Flay to the forefront. "We brought her with us to make sure that she didn't get hounded further."

"Eh? Flay?" another young man with sandy blonde hair wearing orange shades blushed slightly as he poked his head around a piece of machinery.

"Oh… you're in this classroom?" Flay asked the second young man. "I didn't realize you were, Mister Argyle. Sorry to disturb you, everyone."

"Well, it's fine, I'd actually welcome the distraction. This work is giving me a migraine," Kuzzey Buskirk, the first young man sighed as he reclined backwards in his chair. "Is Kato trying to kill us by making us get brain tumours or something?"

"I wish it were that simple, Kuzzey-san," Kira said with an annoyed sigh. "Turns out we're supposed to make a Mobile Suit's OS… and I was the first to realize that."

"Oh, I see… Wait, really?!" Sai spun around after his brain caught up to Kira's explanation and quickly questioned her. "Who's bright idea was it to have us work on a Mobile Suit's OS without us getting compensated?!"

Kira simply shrugged at that, unsure of how to answer the question.

A sharp intake of breath from a corner of the room drew the group's attention to a figure with mid-length blonde hair in a dark brown jacket, cream long pants and a large black cap standing there. The girls that had just arrived were noticeably surprised to see her, while Fubuki frowned and did a quick mental scan on her. She managed to pick up frustration and… anger?

Tolle, who was oblivious to the situation the girl was in, walked over to Kuzzey and asked, "Who's that?"

"Oh, sensei's guest," Kuzzey answered. "They were apparently told to wait here."

"Really?" Tolle asked, looking at her. "What's his beef?" He also asked, unaware of her gender.

"It's a she, not a he, Tolle…" Fubuki pointed out, eliciting a small squeak from the stranger as she was found out. "Kato-teme's guest, huh…"

"Y-yeah," the stranger said. "I needed to check something, due to my father's connection to all this."

"Your fa-father?" Hanami asked, even as her younger sister's frown deepened when she picked up an odd combination of love and resentment… as well as a relation to ORB's leader of some kind. Her eyes widened in shock when she pieced the puzzle together, but she kept it to herself since she was clearly there for something important.

"Yes, my father," the stranger said. "It's something you might not understand…" As if something struck her, she asked, "How come you girls have some of the largest breasts I've seen?! Doesn't that get in the way of class work here?!"

Somehow the Yukikaze and Yamato sisters managed to do synchronized spit takes at the exact same time before turning to stare at the girl incredulously. "That's what got your attention!?" Hanami gasped in one of her odd sentences lacking her usual stutter. "Umm… well… they don't quite get in the way per se…"

"Well, only when we're… um… looking down…" Fubuki was distinctly aware of the looks they were getting from the males in the room, Zamu being the only person seemingly unaffected as he cheerfully examined a piece of machinery.

Flay, at that moment, decided to speak up again. "Um, well… I'll be headed to the restroom, everyone. I'll be right back," she said, before she rushed off.

"Is she going to…?" Kagami trailed off slightly as she looked at her younger sister, who just nodded in response.

* * *

><p>"Ugh… why am I <em>seriously<em> larger than a typical porn star?" Flay asked herself in the restroom. When she got to the restroom, she noticed that it was full of other women, mainly those that were well smaller than her true size. When she went to a stall, she noticed that it was occupied, before the door opened. When the former occupant left the stall, Flay almost immediately entered, glad that the stall had a place for her dress.

When she took her dress off, she noticed that she really needed to get a more fitting outfit on as soon as possible, considering that she was a lot larger than the dress would call for. Shrugging, she removed her chest bindings, revealing for her alone the massive G-cup bust that she was now unrestrained. With a lack of desire to put the dress back on, Flay took some clothes out of her bag, never more happy to actually have them on hand. With that, she put on her backup clothes, put away her dress and then headed out to Kato's lab.

* * *

><p>On the bridge of the ZAFT vessel Rau Le Creuset was on, the <em>Nazca<em>-class _Vesalius_, said Commander finished looking at his watch, saying, "It's time."

Ades followed the orders down to the letter, saying to the ship crew, "Weigh anchor! _Vesalius_ launch!"

* * *

><p>The old captain of the <em>OES Crescent Star<em>, Brandon Riley, was just about to head out to the colony on a break when his console alerted him to the advancing ZAFT ships. Quickly, he called Mu La Flaga back to the bridge at once.

* * *

><p>Warning alarms were sounded in the Heliopolis Air Control center, as a large number of personnel were trying to hail the <em>Nazca<em>-class and _Laurasia_-class vessels. "Heliopolis, here! Approaching ZAFT vessels, please respond! ZAFT vessels, _please_ respond!"

When the Chief Controller made his way to a station, he heard the man at the station say, "Chief Controller—"

"Calm down, now!" the Chief Controller interrupted. "Cut off the alarm!" Taking the man's headset, he said into it, "Issuing a warning to the approaching ZAFT vessels! The actions you are taking are a direct violation of your treaty with our nation! Cease your advance at once! ZAFT vessels, cease your advance at once!"

Unfortunately for the Chief Controller, there was a lot of static that got in the way, which was not natural static.

"Electrical interference," the station man said. "Emanating from the ZAFT vessel. Sir, this is clearly a hostile act!"

* * *

><p>Some time after the vessels made it clear that they were hostile, Mu made it to the bridge in his pilot suit, asking Captain Riley, "Enemies?"<p>

"Two vessels, _Nazca_ and _Laurasia_-class," the captain answered. "Confirmed Mobile Suits launched prior to jamming of communications."

"Huh," Mu said. "Have Luke and Gaile board their Moebius units. Don't deploy them yet!"

* * *

><p><span><em>Later that same day…<em>

A series of explosions rang out through Heliopolis, causing the very structure of the colony to shake as the force of the explosions reverberated through it. In the docking bay, the crew of the latest Earth Alliance battleship immediately made for it when the warning klaxons started up, only for more explosions to rip through the bay, tearing it apart before they could even reach the ship. At the same time, a trio of GINNs attacking from outside the colony effortlessly tore the local militia's defending Mistral units apart, somehow ignoring the Moebius units and the Zero, and began their entrance into the colony proper…

* * *

><p>"That's it," Yzak said, after finding the Earth Forces new Mobile Suits with his binoculars. "It's exactly as Commander Le Creuset said."<p>

"That if we poke them, they'll come out of their holes?" Dearka smiled and raised a signalling device as they watched over the convoy.

"Yes, Dearka, that's right," Yzak said. "After all, the Naturals are blockheads."

* * *

><p><em>"<em>_Seems they found the treasure chest,"_ a ZAFT Greencoat remarked to a fellow Greencoat over a comm channel inside their GINNs. _"Sector S, factory district 37!"_

"Roger," the second Greencoat said, smirking in anticipation. It took him a little bit, but he frowned shortly after, as a thought hit him. "Still, don't you think we should have seen the new weapons in action before we decided what to do?"

_"__It'll have been too late to take action then, Commander Le Creuset said so, right?"_ Greencoat one replied as he homed in on the signal from the commandos.

With a frustrated sigh, the second Greencoat, Miguel Aiman, said mostly to himself, "We should've waited for them to leave the colony first… but the Commander is more of an idiot than I think he'd care to admit."

* * *

><p>Before long, the space battle was proving to be even worse off than the defenders could've realized. Of the defenders, only Mu and his wingmates managed to survive long enough, with Mu deploying his Zero's gunbarrels to help him shoot a GINN in the back and front of its unit.<p>

Still, before Mu could go in for the kill, the GINN sped off in a different direction… just… as…

"GAIL!" Mu cried out in panic.

As Gail's Moebius unit attempted to lock onto the GINN, said Mobile Suit turned around and drew its Heavy Sword, aiming to slice the Mobile Armor in half. Gail didn't have enough time to cry out in terror before his Mobile Armor was cut in half.

* * *

><p>"Please don't tell me Zamu-san's prediction was true…" Kagami gritted her teeth, holding onto a wall for support as the shaking continued in the lab, toppling equipment and causing the lights to flicker on and off. Hanami was hiding under a table and doing her best not to scream out loud while their younger sister was holding onto one of the more secured pieces of equipment.<p>

With a frustrated yell, Kira got the door leading outside to open up. "Guys! We can get out now!" she called out, getting their attention.

"R-Right!" Hanami nodded as she grabbed some vital stuff before running over to the door, Fubuki and Kyou hot on her tail.

"Don't just stand there, start running!" Kagami encouraged the blonde stranger. When she didn't respond and just continued to stay in place, shaking, the silverette huffed indignantly and started dragging her along forcefully.

When the group made it to the door leading to the stairs, after learning that the elevator was not in use, Sai opened it and questioned, "What's this all about?"

"It's ZAFT, they have mobile suits inside the colony!" one of the evacuees answered curtly.

With a gasp, the stranger looked in the direction of the factory district, glaring all the while. As soon as she could, she ran in the direction of the 37th factory district, mainly to finally find out what was going on.

"What the… Oi! Get back here!" Kagami turned around to face her once she realized she was gone. "Damn it, I'll go after her!" she called out to the others before running after the blonde as well.

"Kagami-nee!" Fubuki shouted out, "I'll go with you, it's not safe alone!" as she joined the chase.

"Not without us, you two don't!" Kira called out to the two running Yukikaze siblings, prompting her, Kyou, Zamu and Hanami to run after them.

Just as the group rounded a corner, a redheaded girl stepped out from a side corridor looking around in confusion, almost causing the blonde girl in the lead to crash into her. The rest of the people following her, following closely behind, didn't quite manage to stop in time...

***CRASH CRASH CRASH TUMBLE CRASH***

…and caused a major pile up in the corridor.

"Owowowow…" Hanami rubbed her head in pain, freezing when she realized there was someone's head buried in her bosom. "Eep," she went bright red immediately.

"Who's touching my butt?" Kagami's voice rang out in the darkness.

Fubuki, on the other hand, was in a much more embarrassing position. "Hyaa! Do-Don't move your arm! That's my… hyaaa!"

"Get your foot out of my face!"

"What a mess…"

"Mmmmmph!" a muffled voice came from under Hanami.

"Are you girls okay?" the girl quickly knelt down to check on them, causing quite a few of them to gasp when they recognized her face.

"Flay-chan?" Kyou asked, incredulous that this was the same Flay Allster as before the emergency happened.

"Does it… look weird?" Flay frowned as she adjusted her burgundy miniskirt and shifted her shoulders around slightly underneath her pale blue shirt, wincing slightly. "Ugh, I'm not too used to this…" she gestured at her unbound G-cup bust.

"Err… Okay, I get that she's big if she's been binding her chest, but I didn't expect her to be _that_ big…" Kagami whistled in approval. "Looks good though."

"Uhh… thanks?" Flay said, unsure of the proper reaction to the compliment. Shaking her head to get out of her stupor, she said, "A-anyway, don't you girls need help?"

Hanami, having ended up at the top of the pile since she was the slowest runner, quickly climbed off first, blushing madly when she realized that the person under her was actually Zamu, whose face had gained a distinct blue hue from lack of oxygen. "So-Sorry, Zamu-san!" she hurriedly apologized.

Fubuki was the next to roll off, panting slightly and blushing a similar shade of red as she shot a glare at Zamu, whose arm had somehow managed to end up rubbing against her crotch.

Zamu got off next, having recovered enough oxygen to move about, saying after recovering enough of it, "Note to self… watch where I'm going, next time."

Kyou was the next one off the pile, having gotten out of having a foot to her face, as she blushed heavily. "Note to self… don't do that again," she said.

Kira, who was the next after Kyou to get off, looked at her sister and said, "Duly noted, Kyou. Duly noted."

"Get off me!" the blonde stranger from earlier growled at the last remaining girl on top of her, who happened to be Kagami.

"Sheesh, we come after you and this is what we get?" Kagami sighed as she got off as well, but not without maintaining a firm grip on the blonde's arm. "Look, we're trying to help you out here."

At that point, another explosion occurred, this time with the force needed to only knock the stranger's hat further away from where the pileup took place.

"Are you—" Kagami froze for a moment as she looked at the blonde and immediately recognized who she was. "Cagalli Yula Athha!?"

Cagalli, who had been trying to avoid detection all this time, retorted, "Yeah, who'd you _think_ I was?! Let's hear it!"

Zamu near instantly got between Cagalli and Kagami, saying dangerously, "Okay, missy, care to explain what you know? I don't care if you're Lord Uzumi's daughter, because there's something going on here, and _we_ need to know what it is that's going on!"

"I agree with Zamu-san, you need to tell us what the hell is going on here, and fast!" Kagami started cracking her knuckles threateningly.

Cagalli, who was prepared to tell them off, suddenly realized that telling them off would _probably_ be a bad idea. "O-okay! I came up here to follow up on a lead that Orb was developing Mobile Suits for the OMNI Enforcer! I wanted to know if my father really gave the go ahead to do this."

"Great, Kato was having us develop an OS for _OMNI_ Mobile Suits and _not_ telling us?" Fubuki groaned, even as the air around her started to cool down slightly.

"I-I can't believe the nerve of him!" Hanami growled. "Developing a Mobile Suit OS was bad enough, but to do it for _OMNI_!?"

Kyou, despite the extreme amounts of anger flowing through her, calmly realized something amiss about the situation. "Sahaku…" she muttered.

"Eh?" Kagami turned to look at the bluenette, cocking her head to one side in confusion. "Sahaku?"

"Yes, the Sahaku twins in particular," Kyou said. "Remember how the Sahaku Noble Family has been interested in expanding Orb's territory? I'll betcha that this is one of their power plays."

"S-So my father didn't…?" Cagalli was taken aback at the speculation - she had to admit she had never considered the possibility of the Sahaku twins' interference.

"To the best of my knowledge, exactly," Kyou said. "If Morgenroete was able to make Mobile Suits for OMNI, then what's to say that they didn't make any for _us_ in Orb?"

"Well, we could always go find out…" Fubuki looked in the direction that Cagalli had originally been headed in. "We're quite close to the factory district, so we might be able to make it there before ZAFT does…"

"Do you know wha-what you're suggesting, Fubuki-chan?" Hanami gasped out loud. "We're just students! Those are ZAFT _soldiers_ you're talking about going up against! Shouldn't we just leave it to the ORB soldiers?"

Kira, however, saw a valid option in taking the fight to ZAFT. Taking a look around, she spotted a long metal pipe that could easily be transmuted into a katana, though it would be up to Hanami to transmute it for her… and up to Zamu to see if it was permitted in this circumstance. "Zamu-san," she said, getting his attention. "Is there a protocol for letting people into the know without the reflector?"

"Far as I know, if you're in a life or death situation, it's alright," he said, before growing curious a couple seconds later. "Why?"

Kira didn't particularly respond to him, turning to Hanami and asking, "Could you please transmute that long metal pipe over there into a katana?"

"Kira-chan too!?" Hanami gaped. "Bu-But there are other people that can deal with it, right?"

"Hanami-nee, they were desperate, and probably lousy enough, to get a bunch of _college students _to try and develop an OS for their _Mobile Suits_," Fubuki pointed out in a deadpan. "I don't think they even know how to get them moving, and Kira-chan is probably the only one here good enough to fix that OS up fast enough to get them combat ready…"

The blue-eyed silverette tried to find some other way to dissuade her siblings and best friends from joining the fight, but when she looked around, she could only see determined faces. With a sigh, and a sag of her shoulders, she nodded and walked over to the metal pipe, taking it in her hands and closing her eyes.

"Er, what are you doing, miss—"

Hanami ignored Cagalli's question as she focused her attention on the pipe completely. "Analyzing structure," she began in a low whisper that could eerily be heard by everyone around her, even as her hair began to billow slightly in a nonexistent wind and a soft glow emanated from her hand holding the pipe. "Elemental composition, molecular makeup, check. Beginning breakdown."

A soft gasp came from the members that weren't in the know as the pipe suddenly dissolved into what appeared to be an amorphous blob of metal, although it was still roughly in the shape of a pipe. Hanami stayed focused, however, her brow creased in concentration. "Building new shape," she continued, as the pipe started looked less and less like a pipe and more like a katana even while her glow spread to it. "Reforging molecular bonds…"

With the glow spreading into the newly-made katana, Kira's eyes sparkled as she saw a quality about the blade that was hard to replicate by mundane means, and the blade was going to be hers to use. She knew her swordsmanship training was put to good use, especially if she could defend the colony from ZAFT, what with the fact that she'd need something to help with fighting her foes.

"Adding enhancement, Extending Blade…" Hanami continued on, making sure to give her best friend something for longer ranges. The blade glowed harder and extended slightly as she tested it, before it returned to its original length.

Kyou looked at the two girls out of the loop, noting that they seemed to be both very fascinated by the process Hanami was going through, seemingly because this was a new thing for them. Then again, she wouldn't really know for a fact, as she wasn't a mind reader. She nudged Fubuki and gestured at them, before pointing at her own head.

Fubuki grinned and whispered in Kyou's ear, "They're starting to doubt their parents telling them magic isn't real."

"Huh… that's good," Kyou said, nodding. "Is Hanami-chan done with what she's doing?"

"He-Here, Kira-chan..." Hanami handed the katana over to Kira, holding it by the blade. "Once you touch it, only you will be able to cut with it. Anyone else just gets a blunt blade. I'll make a sheath for it later."

"Thanks, Hanami-chan," Kira said, grabbing the katana by the hilt, before feeling a surge of power flow through her body. "…is this normal?"

"It's bi-binding itself to you," Hanami explained with a small smile. "Don't worry about it."

When the surge of power finished flowing through her, Kira felt the blade act like it was an extension of herself, which meant that Hanami was telling the truth. "Again, thank you," Kira said.

"I wa-want you to live, Kira-chan!" Hanami blushed slightly, but kept her expression serious. "We still have a lot of things to do together!"

"I know…" Kira said. "Well, time to get going, unless anyone else has a weapon they need forged or otherwise transmutated."

"Who do you think made my shinai?" Kagami grinned as she opened up her bag and pulled out her shinai. As she gripped their handles, the blades thinned out and turned into real blades.

Hanami just blushed, reached into her cleavage and withdrew a small object, which quickly expanded into a large carbon Japanese bow.

"I feel left out," Fubuki grumbled.

"Er, Fubuki-chan, aren't you a marksman?" Kyou asked.

"Guns are... a bit harder to make," Hanami explained, even as she tested her bow by drawing the string back slightly, causing an arrow to materialize on it. She relaxed her grip, and the arrow disappeared. "Swords and bows are comparatively simpler, I'd have to research and get a feel for a real gun before transmuting one."

Zamu sighed, before he pulled out two handguns from his trench coat, one being an Uzi, the other a Glock knockoff. "Take your pick," he said. "I don't use guns at all, but it's better to have them on hand, rather than not at all."

"The Glock, I'm not as good with automatics," Fubuki took the Glock knockoff quickly, expertly disassembling it, reassembling it and taking a look down the iron sights. "Ugh, a knockoff, but it'll do for now," she made a face.

Kyou, fortunately, knew how to use automatic weapons. "Despite being a rifleman," she said, getting everyone's attention. "I'll use the Uzi, mainly to save lives with it."

"Just grab a real gun off the next ZAFT guy we run into," Fubuki suggested, staring at her own gun. "I know I'll be doing the same."

Zamu sighed again. "I'd like the ones you're using back after we get out alive," he said, a bit irritated that they might throw away the guns.

"I'll get Hanami-nee to break the Glock down and reforge it again, it's lousy in its current state," Fubuki reassured Zamu.

"Do you have spare magazines on hand for the Uzi?" Kyou asked, before receiving a bag of them. "Okay, that works."

* * *

><p>Back outside the factory district, the ZAFT soldiers in Mobile Suits and in commando suits fired on the defending guards of the OMNI Enforcer Mobile Suits that were on the highway, even getting some linear tanks and such escort vehicles with GINN rifles. The situation had gotten so bad for the guards, it seemed like they were dropping like flies, which might be an accurate summation.<p>

Yzak, who was flying in the lead with his jetpack, ordered the others, "Destroy any parts we can't carry and the factories! Intel indicates seven of them!" Looking and seeing only three of them, he asked, "Are the other four still inside?"

Athrun spoke up, saying, "Rusty, Li Ying, Andreyev and I will continue. Yzak, you guys take these three."

"Okay, go for it!" Yzak said to Athrun and the rest of the group. Turning to face the other Redcoats, he said, "If you're piloting one, be sure to disarm the self-destruct, first!"

With that, the commandos shot and killed the guardsmen, even if some of them were going into the Mobile Suits in question by means of going into the trailers. The Redcoats put a stop to that, however, by throwing a grenade into each trailer, killing the last of them before they could get into the Mobile Suits.

* * *

><p>Later, over at the 37th factory district, Athrun and the others with him shot their way into a firefight with some OMNI Enforcer soldiers disguised as mechanics of Morgenroete. Even though the Earth Forces soldiers were more numerous, the fact of the matter was, the ZAFT soldiers were able to conserve bullets and use their grenades effectively. Still, Rusty was starting to see a correlation between the large numbers of Earth Forces and the… extra… Mobile… Suits…<p>

Doing a quick count behind cover, Rusty realized that they'd been had. "Guys! I just counted eight Mobile Suits here, not the four we were expecting!"

"Think we can grab a few greencoats to help pilot the extra ones?" Andreyev shouted over the gunfire even as he pulled the pin on a grenade and primed it before tossing it over the barricade, only to hear an explosion moments later, accompanied by the satisfying sounds of OMNI soldiers crying out in pain.

"Most of them aren't trained for piloting!" Li Ying poked her rifle out of cover to fire a blind burst.

It was at that moment when a Greencoat was shot through the throat with an arrow, cutting off his head in the process.

Athrun looked in horror at the headless Greencoat, wondering where the arrow came from, when it suddenly vanished without a trace.

"Umm, was that an _arrow_?" Rusty blinked in surprise. "Who the heck uses a weapon like that on a modern battlefield?"

"I'm more interested in that disappearing act it did," Li Ying was also more than a little stunned. "And how it beheaded one of our soldiers."

At that point, Athrun noticed that there was a lot less Earth Forces soldiers in the battlefield than before, so he said, "Carry the remaining machines with you, as best as possible, but don't spend time waiting for the sniper to continue firing on us!"

"Incoming!" another Greencoat shot out, before he was silenced as a rain of arrows soared and hit the remaining mooks on the ground level.

"How many archers do they have!?" Andreyev complained, diving under one of the trucks for cover, stopping and staring as an arrow in front of him disappeared into thin air. "_Chto za huy _(What the fuck)!?"

"I think we _really_ need to improve our intel, guys!" Rusty called out from his spot, before he had to duck behind a car.

"Get into the mobile suits!" Li Ying shouted out as she climbed onto one of the mobile suits immediately after the shower of arrows stopped.

It was at that moment when Athrun shot a few rounds at one of the remaining Earth Forces soldiers, a woman at that, before realizing his assault rifle was jammed. Taking out his combat knife, he jetted over to the woman, but was forced to stop when he saw a familiar person land in between he and his target, who had been hit in the right shoulder.

At the same time, their mystery archer revealed herself, a young woman with long, wavy silver hair holding a Japanese longbow dashed out into the open towards one of the doors leading to another hangar, flanked by another identical woman wielding twin swords and a younger woman with similar hair colour, but in a different style who stopped to steal a rifle off a fallen greencoat before moving on.

"Kira-chan, good luck!" one of them called out in a voice Athrun thought sounded quite familiar.

As the silver-haired girls ran through the door, the familiar person swung her katana at Athrun, almost hitting him. He got out of the way, but had to sacrifice his combat knife when it was clear that the blade was able to reach its wielder's foes. When the person looked up…

"Huh? Athrun…kun?"

"K-Kira-chan?!" Athrun questioned.

At that moment, another explosion hit, though the two friends from Copernicus City ignored that in favor of staring at each other in the eyes, with Kira standing upright.

"Kira-chan, what are you doing here?" Athrun demanded, keeping up his stare.

"I _live_ in this colony, Athrun-kun," Kira informed him, stressing the word 'live'.

"Then…" Athrun gasped as he realized that his actions could have contributed to the death of his best friend. "I... I had no idea!"

"Now you do," Kira got out, before a gunshot could be heard from behind her. The Earth Forces soldier was struggling to shoot Athrun, who had gotten out of his stupor enough to fly to a different part of the hangar.

"Damn it!" Athrun growled and smashed his fist against the armour of a mobile suit he had landed next to, before making his decision and climbing into its open hatch.

* * *

><p>"Move back behind the seat," the Earth Forces soldier said, after having gotten both her and Kira into the cockpit of the Mobile Suit they were initially on top of. With Kira complying, the soldier sat down and said, "At least we can save this one. Even <em>I<em> should be able to operate it."

"Last I checked, you were desperate enough to get college students to program the OS, so forgive me when I say I don't have any confidence in your piloting skills," Kira pointed out.

"Wh-what the… how did you know that?!" the Earth Forces soldier questioned.

"I was one of said college students, duh..." the brunette rolled her eyes as she reached across the soldier and pulled the cockpit keyboard across. "Let me fix it, and I'll at least try to get us both out alive!"

"What, are you crazy?!" the soldier demanded. "How are you supposed to fix the OS at a time like this?! There's no time to—"

"I can do it!" Kira shouted. "I'm more than qualified to do this!"

"Ugh, alright!" the soldier groaned and climbed to the back of the cockpit to let Kira take over.

At that point, the OS booted up, letting Kira take a look at the state it was in. The name alone was easy enough to find, especially since it listed that right off.

**MOBILE SUIT OPERATION SYSTEM**

**/Version NV8 - N099/**

**G**eneral

**U**nilateral

**N**euro - Link

**D**ispersive

**A**utonomic

**M**aneuver

**G.U.N.D.A.M Synthesis System**

**O.M.N.I. Enforcer**

"Gundam?" Kira asked out loud.

"Yes, that's the name of the OS," the soldier confirmed.

"Well… it sure sounds like a better name than what you would have given the Mobile Suit class," Kira quipped.

With that, the Mobile Suit known as the Strike Gundam rose from the Mobile Suit cradle, along with the other Mobile Suits in the immediate area… ready to see a new day of war.

* * *

><p><strong>Xamusel: Well, this is something to note for the records. Astral and I managed to get the second chapter of this story out, with some minor delays like having to sleep at different times (mainly timezone hijinks). Now… Astral? You want to say stuff?<strong>

* * *

><p><strong>Astral: Hello again, and welcome to chapter 2! And yeah, it's getting a little hard to update when we live on opposite sides of the globe, and my classes are messing with my updating schedule. That being said, we're starting to see some action finally! Looking forward to writing the next chapter as well. Oh, and you may notice that Flay is going to be OOC in this fanfic.<strong>

* * *

><p><strong>Xamusel: Yeah, that's right, Flay's getting to be considerably OOC for this story. Fortunately, that's a good thing, considering the stuff that's going to happen compared to canon. We don't need the canonical Flay here… and I'm getting sidetracked.<strong>

**Well, with that said and done, we'll see you in the next chapter!**


	3. Its Name is Gundam

**Xamusel: Well… now we're getting to the part of the story where things can safely diverge off the beaten path. If you want to know more, then you'll have to read on, because Astral and I won't spoil anything.**

**Oh, if you want to know Cagalli's status for the future, that's for you to find out later.**

**Welp, time to start the next chapter!**

* * *

><p><span>Chapter 3<span>: Its Name is Gundam

* * *

><p>It was a dangerous fight between ZAFT and the last two defenders of the Heliopolis colony—<p>

***BOOM***

—and Luke's Moebius unit got shot down, leaving Mu's Zero to defend the colony from ZAFT.

* * *

><p><em>"<em>_A level eight evacuation order has been issued for all of Heliopolis!"_ a man's voice was heard from over the Public Security Speakers. _"Residents are instructed to make their way to the nearest shelters at once!"_

Of course, because the civilians were doing what they could to flee, most of them couldn't afford to spare glances at the area where the factories were—

***BOOM***

—until the area around it went up in a quake of flames.

* * *

><p>With the stolen Gundams, they landed next to the remaining GINN (mainly because the other two had left to escort the other stolen Gundams out), which was pilot by Miguel. "Guys!" Miguel called out happily, before blinking for a moment. "Wait… what's with the extra machines?"<p>

_"__Intel fucked up,"_ Li Ying growled.

_"__The other ones were boarded by Earth Forces officers,"_ Athrun explained. _"The greencoats got sniped before we could get them in any of the extra ones."_

"What?!" Miguel yelled, exasperated. Seeing one of the machines attempt to move normally, one that looked like it could pass off as a wizard in Mobile Suit appearance, he shot at the unit's feet and made it stumble. Putting away his GINN rifle, he drew the Heavy Sword, before saying, "Much as I'm loathe to do this, I think I'll have to capture the other machines, or at least prevent the Earth Forces from using them further." At that, he moved his GINN forward, attempting to get to the Mobile Suits in question.

Before he could get too close, Miguel was forced to jump back when another one of the machines sporting a silver and dark blue paint job raised its rifle and fired a beam of green energy at him. Soon afterwards, one of the largest mobile suits be had ever seen, about 30% larger than the rest, coloured in gray with yellow highlights, stepped in front of the fallen wizard-like suit, its footsteps actually leaving imprints in the reinforced concrete ground.

"What… the… _hell_?!" Miguel roared out. "Where did _that_ come from?!"

At the same time, what appeared to be a black and red-coloured jet fighter rose up out of a hangar nearby and turned to point its nose in Miguel's direction. It flew over beside the other suits before suddenly transforming into a mobile suit itself and landing with a pair of large guns on its shoulders still pointed at him threateningly.

"Okay, y'know what? We're getting out of here," Miguel said with panic in his voice. "I don't want to risk losing those in the team that have accomplished the objective over a few extra Mobile Suits." With that, he jetted off to the Colony harbor, the others following behind him—

_"__What the hell are you idiots _doing_?!"_ a dangerous male voice shot out over the comm channels. _"You don't retreat from a group of _inferior_ Naturals!"_

—while a group of 25 C-type GINNs arrived, wearing a darker green than a standard GINN, landing next to the spot where the Le Creuset Team pilots left from.

* * *

><p><em>"<em>_Actually, my FCS isn't pro-properly calibrated yet…"_ Hanami sighed. _"I'm… not sure if I can ha-handle this in a fight…"_

_"__Just get closer so you won't miss then!"_ Kagami pointed out, even as she ejected her beam sabers from her knee holsters and grabbed them. _"My linear cannons aren't even loaded either!"_

Fubuki sighed as she experimentally flexed her mobile suit's arms. _"I'm probably completely immune to their weapons, but this thing is just so… slow!"_

Kyou turned her attention to the GINNs that were just standing there. _"Guys,"_ she said, getting their attention. _"I have the strange feeling I know who these newcomers are."_

Kira turned her attention to look at the GINNs as well. "Yeah… I hope it's not who I think it is," she said. _'I do hope it's not the CLA… they should _never_ have been formed.'_

* * *

><p>"What are you people doing? We've achieved our objective already!" Miguel hollered at the newcomers.<p>

_"__The objective is to have _all_ the Naturals and Natural lovers destroyed, especially before they can get their hands on a way to defeat the next stage of humanity!"_ one of the newcomers shot back, hoping that would get whatever point across.

_"__If they weren't greencoats I'd shoot those fascist bastards myself,"_ Andreyev whispered to Athrun in a secure communication, for once breaking from his usual jovial character.

_"__I couldn't agree more, Andreyev,"_ Athrun replied. _"I couldn't agree more."_

_"__Quan bu dou shi hun dan… (They're all bastards…)"_ Li Ying made her agreement known too.

_"__Er, guys, don't you think we need to report this to Commander Le Creuset?"_ Rusty asked over the same channels.

"I don't think he can do anything about it even if we do… That was the CLA unit right?" Miguel sighed, wishing he didn't have to get involved with them. "Actually, the Commander might not even care about them at all."

A few moments of silence transpired before—

_"__What the _hell_?!"_

—all the redcoats in the Le Creuset Team in the area yelled in complete sync.

* * *

><p><em>"<em>_So… are we going to take these guys apart or not?"_ Kagami asked as the group of mobile suits stared down their opposition.

_"__I _knew_ that these guys were familiar somehow!"_ Kyou roared. _"The CLA, or Coordinator Liberation Army, abducted onee-chan and I when we were younger, before we moved to Copernicus City! They're the reason why we are reluctant to be anywhere near the PLANTs, because they take orders from someone on their Supreme Council!"_

_"__I'm actually wondering how we can he-hear them… Can they hear us?"_ Hanami fearfully asked, even as she gripped her controls tighter.

"I don't think they can, Hanami-chan," Kira said, raring to get rid of some of the forces on her shit list. "Even if they did, they'd probably agree that we'd need to get rid of the CLA before fighting each other."

_"__I suppose we do need to take out the trash first, huh…"_ Fubuki's mobile suit reached down back into its hangar to pull out a gigantic rifle almost as big as it was, which, considering its size, was really saying something. _"I don't think the world is going to miss 25 fascist extremists."_

_"__Uh, guys?"_ Zamu's voice could be heard over the comm channels. _"A little help here? I don't have a functioning Mobile Suit here, and I need to get this thing to stand."_

_"__Kira-chan, can you try to send Zamu's one a quick OS fix real quick? We'll cover you in the meantime,"_ Kagami asked, her mobile suit turning to look at the Strike.

"On it, Kagami-chan," Kira said, getting the OS connection started up.

_"__Die, inferior Natural scum!"_ one of their enemies roared on the loudspeakers as a few of the GINNs charged at the group, firing their guns at the most obvious target - Fubuki's huge mobile suit. It didn't quite manage to raise its shield in time to defend itself from the onslaught, although the bullets just bounced off the armour ineffectively, not even making it budge an inch.

_"__That's annoying…"_ Fubuki grumbled as she tried to ignore the constant noise from the impact of the 76mm shells from the GINNs against her armour.

Kyou, having already gotten the OS fixed to her standards, prepared to fire her unit's Beam Rifle at one of the enemy units when she, for lack of a better term, felt a hyper awareness of the surrounding area. Pressing a button on her console, she activated her Gundam's backpack unit, spreading about four gun barrels from the back of her machine.

_"__I need to calibrate my FCS first…"_ Hanami mused as she started firing at the group of mobile suits, the sound of her hands flying across her keyboard could be heard after each shot, her efforts showing as they got progressively closer and closer to their targets.

_"__Orya!"_ Kagami shouted, ducking in close to one of the stragglers and bisecting his rifle before he could respond, using her mobile suit's much, much better mobility to full effect. When her opponent tried to pull out his own sword, she managed to cut his shield arm off before she was forced to retreat by a hail of gunfire.

At this time, a couple beam rifle shots connected with the batteries of two C-type GINNs, causing them to go up in flames. With that, everyone looked in the direction of a Mobile Suit in the rear, one that looked like a slender, female version of the new prototypes, but with a witch's hat and cape attached to it.

_"__Umm, Flay-chan?"_ Fubuki blinked in surprise as her large, hulking unit turned around to look at the witch-like mobile suit. _"You're not trained in mobile suit programming like we are, and Kira-chan's not done with her OS fix yet, so how are you moving that unit?"_

_"__I honestly have no idea,"_ Flay admitted. _"It just started up on its own when I got inside, and even calibrated itself to match my physical abilities, even enhance them!"_

_"__What?"_ Kagami gasped. _"That shouldn't be possible…"_

"Oh, fer cryin' out loud!" Kira cried out. "The Magus Gundam's rejecting the fix I'm trying to give it!"

_"__Magus Gundam?"_ An idea suddenly struck Hanami as she looked at the witch-like mobile suit, and then back at the wizard-like one. _"Kira-chan… co-could it be that they're…"_ she trailed off, wondering how Morgenroete could produce mobile suits like those.

Kira's eyes widened. "Oh, shit! I didn't think that was possible!" Looking at the OMNI Enforcer soldier, she asked, "Did _you_ know?"

"Know about what?" the soldier just plain looked confused as she stared at the odd-looking mobile suits on the monitors. "I've seen those two around, but I just thought their designer had really odd tastes…"

Kira facepalmed. "I thought you were an engineer for Morgenroete, but it seems like I was mistaken," she said. "Still, we can't let you off until the CLA bastards and bitches out there die off, so you're stuck with us."

"I'm not complaining about that, but these mobile suits _are_ Earth Alliance military secrets. What are you going to do with them after this?" the not-engineer demanded.

"Make sure they get the hell off of Heliopolis, that's what," Kira said with a growl. "There's no way in Hell that I'm letting them stay on my home colony!"

"That's what we were intending until ZAFT attacked…" the soldier groused.

Dropping her head, Kira stated, "I hate this a lot, y'know that? Not only is ZAFT attacking, I'm being tormented by the CLA!"

_"__Feel free to start attacking them anytime now…"_ Kagami deadpanned as she ducked behind Fubuki's heavily-armoured mobile suit for cover.

Hanami's mobile suit ducked behind a large hangar as well, leaning out of cover every now and then to pop off a shot… at least until all she could hear was a clicking sound as the rifle's energy clip ran out. _"Eh? Eh?"_ Hanami blinked in confusion, before groaning out loud in realization, _"Clip-fed beam we-weapons?And I was just getting the hang of it too!"_

Kira groaned, before she lifted her head. "What weapons does this Gundam come with?" she asked the soldier.

"Ordinarily we'd have a bunch of add-on weapon packs for the Strike… but in this state it only has the head vulcans and combat knives…" the soldier responded.

"Okay… you have _got_ to be _shitting_ me!" Kira yelled out. "How can this be combat ready without at least a handheld weapon that can be used multiple times?!"

"It was never supposed to go into combat in this state," the soldier pointed out. "In theory, the Strike should always be deployed with one of the mission packs."

Kira sighed, before she opened fire on the CLA units with her Igelstellungs, causing them to scatter from the shots. "This will have to do," she said.

_"__Oi, that's all you have? Puny head vulcans?"_ Kagami complained, trying to fend off a pair of GINNs that had surrounded her. She had managed to steal a GINN shield off the ground, and was using it in place of her right hand's beam saber to awkwardly block some attacks.

Kira felt a fair bit vindicated, shouting, "Well, excuse _me_ for not having a complete package with my Gundam!"

_"__Alright, alright! Catch!"_ Kagami quickly shield bashed a GINN and then threw the shield at the other GINN behind her, getting a bit more breathing space before ejecting her second beam saber again and throwing it in Kira's direction.

Kira caught the Beam Saber in her unit's right hand, even as Kyou opened fire on the CLA units with her gun barrels, beams spouting out. "Kyou-imoto, ready to crush these guys?!" Kira asked.

_"__You bet!"_ her younger sister growled. _"I'm sick of these CLA bastards!"_

"Right! Let's _do_ this!" Kira shouted, before rushing one of the CLA units.

_"__M-Me too!"_ Hanami had dropped her beam rifle, unable to find a way to reload it. Instead, she had a beam saber in her unit's right hand as she charged forward with her shield raised in front of her.

Kagami had managed to steal another shield and was apparently trying to use it like a certain superhero she had seen in a movie before by throwing it. _"Why doesn't anyone make circular shields these days?"_ she grumbled as the shield just caved in the GINN's cockpit and stuck there without returning to her.

"I really wish I knew," the soldier answered sarcastically. "It seems really ridiculous to _not_ throw your shield away in the middle of battle!"

_"__Well, I only do that because it's just so much easier to do this!"_ the red-eyed silverette returned as her mobile suit stooped to grab a fallen GINN's assault rifle in its now free right arm and started firing it at its former users, not using the burst firing mode because of the lack of stabilization - her left hand still held her beam saber. After a few shots nailed a GINN, she threw her rifle towards Fubuki's mobile suit before grabbing another one from the recently-disabled mobile suit.

The rifle bounced off Fubuki's mobile suit's armour, barely fazing it. _"Hey! What was that for?"_ Fubuki complained. _"I'm already armed!"_

_"__Those are weapon holders of some kind on your shoulders, right?"_ Kagami asked.

Roughly getting the idea, Fubuki used a free hand to put the rifle into the holder on her left shoulder, where it locked into place. She didn't miss the new firing controls popping up on one of her screens. _"Oh,"_ she said intelligently as the holder swung down to point the stolen gun at the enemy GINNs and started firing it remotely.

With the Magus Gundam, Zamu finally managed to stand upright and stay that way, even as he looked through his controls and checked for any available weapons. _"Let's see… hmm? What's this? 'Incussus' Staff?"_ he asked out loud. Raising the staff in the air, he called out, **_"Pixie Blast!"_**

A blast of wind erupted from the orb on the top of his staff, the air molecules forming into an invisible blade sharp enough to slice through most of the remaining C-type GINNs, with only five of the units unaffected by the blast.

_"__Well… that worked,"_ he said with a shrug.

_"__What the heck was that?"_ Flay stared bug-eyed at the wizard-themed mobile suit. _"Was that… wind?"_

_"__Yes, it was,"_ Zamu said. _"I'd teach you the details, but it's not important now, given the battlefield situation."_

_"__Flay-chan, it's magic,"_ Fubuki calmly explained as her mobile suit used her giant rifle as a bat to slam a GINN hard enough that it flew right into the side of a building, knocking the pilot out with blunt force trauma. She blinked in surprise afterwards. _"Wow, I didn't mean to do that."_

"What are you _talking_ about?!" the soldier demanded. "There's no such _thing_ as magic!"

"You'd be surprised," Kira said, before she blinked. "Wait… where'd the last of us go?"

_"__Cagalli-sama is with me, Kira-chan,"_ Fubuki said. _"We just put her in the mobile suit that looked like it had the most armour… I guess we lucked out in that sense."_

"I'll say," Kira answered. "Is there any way we can get her out of here?"

_"__Maybe later, when this all blows over,"_ Fubuki looked in the direction of the remaining GINNs, who were suddenly looking a lot less comfortable as they took a few steps back.

Before they could fly off, however, beam blasts took off from what appeared to be a fighter jet firing off a beam SMG, coring the remaining CLA units and making them explode.

"What the… who _did_ that?" Kira asked in confusion.

* * *

><p>"Oops, my trigger finger slipped," Rusty smiled as he released his finger from the trigger on his controls and watched the explosions with a satisfied look on his face.<p>

_"__I saw nothing, _tovarisch_,"_ Andreyev covered his eyes with his hand on the communications screen, chuckling heartily.

_"__Good job, Rusty,"_ Athrun commended his friend.

_"__Okay, guys, nobody tell the Commander about this,"_ Miguel said over the comms. _"Don't want to know what would happen if he found out about it at all."_

_"__Wasn't planning on it,"_ Li Ying's expression looked like her usual emotionless look, although those that knew her could see the edges of her mouth twitching upwards. _"They deserved it, like the dogs they are."_

* * *

><p>As soon as the units under ZAFT control left, Kira turned to face the soldier, only to see the woman knocked out from the explosions. "Uh… oops?" she stated.<p>

_"__Well, at least there seem to be a few decent fellows among that ZAFT bunch,"_ Kagami relaxed and stretched her arms. _"That was tiring, wasn't it, Hanami-chan?"_

Hanami didn't respond.

_"__Uh, onee-chan? Is something wrong with Hanami-chan?"_ Kyou asked Kira.

_"__I… I…"_ Hanami's voice came through shakily. On the comms, they could see her shaking as she wrapped her arms around herself too.

"Uh-oh…" Kira said, worriedly. "I think this was her first time to kill a living human."

_"__Huh? Wait… oh,"_ Kyou said, depressed. _"I thought her family was like ours…"_

_"__Hanami-nee!"_ Fubuki shouted as her elder sister's mobile suit deactivated and knelt down to the ground, before the cockpit hatch opened.

Said elder sister awkwardly crawled out onto the open hatch, before she opened her mouth and emptied her stomach out onto the grass.

"I knew it…" Kira said, sympathy in her tone. "She never had to kill before."

_"__I… I ki-killed the soldiers…"_ Hanami's mobile suit's communications were apparently still online as the others could hear her murmuring to herself. _"Ev-Even decapi-decapi…"_ They could see her glance back into the cockpit at her bow before puking again, as her brain processed the information from before her adrenaline rush had kicked in.

_"__You're lucky, Hanami-chan,"_ Kyou piped up. _"You never had to kill before… _we_, however, did."_

_"__The-They had fa-families, Kyou-chan…"_ Hanami whispered, hugging herself as she started crying. _"And I still ki-ki-killed them…"_

Kagami and Fubuki's mobile suits both knelt down beside Hanami's as well, popping their cockpit hatches as they jumped out of their cockpits to reach their grieving sister.

"Actually, the CLA requires that any First Generation Coordinator they draft murder their Natural parents," Kira pointed out, hating herself for even mentioning this, but it had to be done. "We nearly lost our parents because the CLA had conditioned Kyou and I to become will-less Child Soldiers, and the CLA even tampered with Kyou's genetics after they found out she wasn't a 'pure' Coordinator, all for the sake of 'a world ruled by the superior race'."

Kagami and Fubuki quickly turned away from their sister upon hearing the news and emptied their own stomachs onto the grass as well. although they quickly recovered and turned to the radio in Hanami's cockpit. _"What the fuck!?"_ Kagami gasped out, not even bothering to stop the curse that came out involuntarily.

_"__Kira-chan, Kyou-chan… you…"_ Fubuki whispered with a stunned look. _"No, that was all in the past, you're okay now…"_

_"__But I still ki-killed the greencoats from before… On foot, with my arrows…"_ Hanami cried, even as Kagami and Fubuki turned around to pull her into a group hug.

"I'm really going to hate myself for this, I just know it," Kira said, groaning at that. "Look, Hanami-chan, those—"

Before the words could get out, however, an explosion came from the last remaining C-type GINN that was supposed to be knocked out, causing a shockwave that hit the three sisters, forcing them into the cockpit… and having them hit their heads.

* * *

><p>A woman with short black hair in an OMNI Enforcer military officer's uniform drifted up in the corridor that she was unconscious in, banging against the ceiling as a cadaver hit her body at the same time. Waking up, her amethyst eyes took in the sight of the cadaver, before she looked ready to puke. Before the woman could do so, however, the soldier within her steeled herself to stay active.<p>

"The ship! Where's the _Archangel_?!" she cried out, moving away from the cadaver and back to the ship in question.

* * *

><p>A GINN, piloted by Olor Koudenburg, shot the <em>OES Crescent Star<em> in the portside control module, forcing it to fly straight into Heliopolis.

"We've lost control!" one of the helmsmen shouted out, just as the ship was mere meters away from the colony walls.

Captain Riley merely had the presence of mind to scream in abject horror as the ship crumpled itself into a ball, before the explosion came about.

* * *

><p>"Argh!" Mu La Flaga grunted out, even as he dueled Olor with his Zero. "Can't we do something about this difference in battle strength?!"<p>

Olor's GINN moved to fire on Mu's Mobile Armor, even as the OMNI ace pilot fought to defeat his foe. It took an ingenious use of his gun barrels to shoot the rifle out of the GINN's hand, while more rounds hit the GINN in the right shoulder, even as Olor had it use the Heavy Sword in a vain attempt to slice the Zero.

Olor knew when to cut his losses, so he jetted back to the _Vesalius_ to get his report in.

* * *

><p>"Olor's damaged; emergency landing! Fire crew to B-deck!" one of the comm officers on the Vesalius shouted.<p>

"In a simple battle such as this?" Ades questioned. "Olor's taken damage?"

Rau Le Creuset raised his head, having gotten the feeling his rival was out there. "From the looks of it, we have an unforeseen problem," he said. "A rather annoying fly buzzing around."

"Huh?" Ades asked, confused.

It was at that point when Miguel's image appeared on the comm frequencies. _"We have a _huge_ problem!"_ Miguel said. _"There's more Mobile Suit prototypes than we accounted for!"_

"Oh?" Rau asked, really unsure of how to best approach the situation. "Did you lose the backup you had with you?"

_"__What backup?"_ Miguel asked. _"I was the last one of the team left in a GINN, because the others left with the other rookies!"_

"Hmm… this is going to be a problem," Rau said. "Return to the ship, Miguel. I'll have a retreat signal flare launched, so that you can get out alright with Matthew."

_"__Roger,"_ Miguel said, before his image faded.

"Hmm… if the remaining units were enough to make _Miguel_ pause and return," Rau said, before getting out of his seat, headed for the Mobile Suit hangar bay. "It's all the more reason why we simply neglect the last ones."

* * *

><p>"Anyone!? Is there anyone here!?" the woman from earlier called out as she drifted around the wrecked dock holding the form of the Earth Alliance's latest assault carrier. "Damn it! Aren't there any survivors!?" she slammed her fist against a bulkhead as she caught sight of the captain's beret floating around among the wreckage.<p>

At that point, someone could be heard forcing a metal door down, before a light shone in specific spots, including the woman's face. After a bit, the owner of the light, a man with a flashlight, said to the woman, "Ensign Badgiruel, glad to see you're okay."

* * *

><p>The retreat signal flares were fired off, getting the remaining GINNs to retreat to their motherships. Mu, within his Zero, noticed this and asked himself, "They're retreating? But there's still something…" It was at that point when his Newtype senses went tingling, alerting him to a familiar presence. "What's this?"<p>

Turning his Zero to head for the colony, Mu sincerely hoped he wasn't too late.

* * *

><p>Within his CGUE, Rau moved the unit over to Heliopolis, even as he said in monologue, "Tell me, do you feel my presence? Do you sense it in the same way that I sense yours? An unfortunate fate, wouldn't you say? Mu La Flaga…"<p>

* * *

><p>The OMNI soldier grimaced as she slowly opened her eyes, letting them adjust to the artificial light of the colony. When she tried to move herself, she winced and swallowed in pain, realizing that her right shoulder was bandaged where she had been shot. "Grk…!" she bit down the pain and tried to get up - she needed to find out what the situation was!<p>

"Whoa, easy there!" a young woman, not the same one that piloted the Strike, said from her right, even as she was pushed back down gently. "Kira-chan insisted that you didn't move while we found a doctor to take a look at your shoulder injury. It's for the best that way."

The soldier relented, if only to relieve the pain slightly and resorted to staring at the sky as she pondered the events of the day. What had gone wrong? Everything had been going perfectly well the past few days - the G-Weapon development had been on schedule, mostly, at least, only the OS was lagging far behind.

"Ugh… did anyone get the number of that train…?" a groan came from beside her, causing her to turn and look for the source. She was a little surprised to see that all of the silver-haired young women that had been piloting the Exodus series mobile suits were lying on makeshift beds beside her as well. The groan had come from the more… scantily-clad one, who was slowly sitting up and clutching her head.

With a sigh and shake of her head, the young woman that held the soldier down answered, "Kagami-chan, you were caught in an explosion's shockwave. I don't think Heliopolis _has_ any trains, fortunately."

"Point," Kagami sat up groggily and looked around her, sighing in relief when she noticed her sisters lying beside her, although Hanami seemed to be having a very bad dream if her shaking form curled up into a ball was any sign. "Poor Hanami-chan…" she shook her head.

"What? What happened?" the soldier asked, unsure of what to do or say about this.

"Hanami-chan…" Kagami hesitated for a moment, before she let a few tears drop from her eyes. "…killed. I remember seeing you in the hangar when ZAFT hit it. She was the one responsible for the rain of arrows that took most of them out, although she messed up her first shot and ended up…" she trailed off, before her face turned slightly green at the thought.

The soldier blinked, before realization hit her. "I… I see," she said. "I'm sorry to hear that…"

"It doesn't help that Hanami-nee has always been the gentlest one out of the three of us," the twintailed silverette rose from her bed, also holding a hand to where a bump had developed and massaging it. "She abhors killing anything at all, she won't even kill an ant crawling around on her table. Everything that happened just now went completely against what she believes in," she looked at her sleeping elder sister sadly.

The soldier nodded in sorrow, before she said, "I really wish that I could help alleviate the pain she's going through. However, as I'm aware of it, the only ones to that should kill are the ones that are ready to be killed in return. I really didn't want to say that to a bunch of innocent children, especially one that abhors killing, but it needed to be done."

Kagami chuckled lamely as she sat down beside Hanami and pulled Fubuki down to sit beside her too. "I can agree with that… I can't quite say I'm ready to be killed yet though," she leaned back slightly and looked up at the artificial sky. "Maybe that's why I went for all the disabling slashes," she whispered, fisting her hands.

"Neither am I… but Kira-chan and Kyou-chan are our best friends," Fubuki looked around for the Yamato siblings, but found neither hide nor hair of them. "It'd hurt me even more if I just sat on the sidelines and did nothing while they fought for their lives… for our lives…"

At that point, a woman that looked like what Kyou would grow up to look like - minus the bust size - walked into view with Kira and Kyou, bearing medical supplies for the wounded. "Oh, most of you are awake," she said, walking up to the patients. "I'm Yamato Caridad… or, in the English way, Caridad Yamato. I studied to be a doctor, so I know how to best help people."

"Caridad-san!" Fubuki smiled at the familiar sight of Kira's mother. "Thank goodness you're here…"

"That's a relief…" Kagami sighed, as she turned to Hanami again. "Just let me wake her up first," she gently gripped Hanami's hand, squeezing it as she tucked her hair to one side with her free hand and gently kissed her twin on her forehead.

Hanami didn't stop shaking, but she slowly opened her eyes, whispering, "Ka-Kagami-chan…? Fubuki-chan…?"

"Okay, you're all awake," Caridad said, getting Hanami's attention. "I hope that you'll forgive me for intruding on certain spots while I give you a check-up, girls. You need it."

The soldier nodded, before saying, "The younger ones need this first. I can live with this bullet wound for a bit longer."

"Are you sure?" Caridad asked, not quite believing the grown woman. Upon seeing the soldier nod, she sighed. "Alright, you win, you'll go last."

"Hanami-chan first, she needs it more than we do," Kagami quickly where Hanami had sat up. The blue-eyed twin had quickly hugged her the moment she was conscious enough, and didn't appear to be willing to let go even as she shook and buried her face in Kagami's chest.

"Yeah, Hanami-nee first," Fubuki nodded as well.

"Very well," Caridad said with a nod, before remembering something. "Oh, right, do you want either of my daughters to investigate the situation regarding the ship that's supposed to be here, miss…?"

"My name is Murrue Ramius," the soldier said. "I'm an Earth Alliance Forces officer, one that would rather not force anyone into battle against their will. However, I don't know how you know about the _Archangel_, missus Yamato."

Kira chuckled nervously for a bit. "Eh, that would be my fault," she answered. "I looked through the Strike Gundam's database and saw the carrier that was supposed to be in a secret harbor in the colony. I can try contacting them for you, if you want."

Murrue sighed, before she nodded. "Alright," she said. "You should contact them as soon as possible, given the N-Jammers in the area."

"Right," Kira said, even as she headed over to the Strike Gundam's cockpit.

While her eldest daughter did that, Caridad walked over to Hanami and asked, "How are you feeling, Hanami-chan?"

"... Bad… very ba-bad…" Hanami trembled, still holding on tight to Kagami who was now rubbing her head gently. "I… I ki-killed, Caridad-san… how co-could I feel go-good about it…?"

With a sigh, Caridad hugged Hanami, saying, "It only means you're human, Hanami-chan. What you did was part of the human condition. Nobody should force you to do something you don't want to… even killing."

There was a short, pregnant pause as Hanami slowly lifted up her head, before turning to look at Kira and Kyou. "Ca-Caridad-san…" the silverette swallowed before continuing, "How did you.. did you deal with… Ki-Kira-chan and Kyou-chan after… _it_?" she whispered.

It took a short bit, but Caridad answered in a motherly tone, "I'm still dealing with them after what had happened. Kyou will never identify herself as anything other than a product of a Natural and a Coordinator, but that's because it is part of her very essence. Nothing can change her essence, no matter how hard they try. In regards to all of what happened, they were conditioned to treat killing like an everyday occurrence towards Naturals, but like the highest possible crime towards Coordinators… Haruma and I are still working on fixing that to this day, even though they redirected the killing clause to the CLA and any enemies of their homes."

"I… I fought to pro-protect Kagami-chan, Fu-Fubuki-chan, Kira-chan and Kyou-chan…" Hanami whispered softly. "The-There's nothing wrong wi-with that, right…?"

"Protecting is the right goal in fighting, Hanami-chan," Caridad said, soothingly. "I won't force you to fight again, but it would be good if you fought to protect."

"I… I'm scared though. The people I ki-killed… they had families… I want to fo-forget about it all… but… but… I'm scared they'll die all forgotten… all alone…" Hanami cried, her soft side showing itself.

Caridad held Hanami close, saying, "Never forget the ones you fight. That's what makes you… you. We won't think less of you for that."

Hanami just cried softly for a few moments as she relinquished her grip on Kagami and hugged Caridad instead, dampening the front of her coat with her tears.

It took a bit of time, but Caridad noticed that Hanami felt a lot better off than before. "There's also this saying you need to hear," Caridad said to the silverette. "'Those who do the killing should be ready to be killed,' or so I've heard it. That also applies to the soldiers you killed, since they knew what they were getting into."

Hanami stopped crying for a moment to ponder the statement, while relaxing somewhat in the doctor's embrace. "…Caridad-san… can you te-teach me to make… paper cranes…?" she suddenly asked.

Caridad blinked in surprise, before she asked, "Uh… why do you want me to teach you?" After a bit of silence, she said, "Not that I can't… I'm just curious."

"I… I… I want to make one for e-every li-life that I've ta-taken… I think I… I can remember the-them better like that…" Hanami whispered, a small smile on her face.

"Alright, Hanami-chan," Caridad said with a nod. "I'll teach you."

"Tha-Thank you, Caridad-san…" Hanami's smile widened just a bit.

"You're welcome, Hanami-chan," Caridad said with a smile of her own.

* * *

><p>Mu coasted towards the entrance to the colony, listening to his instincts and constantly scanning his surroundings for threats. There was something off about the situation, and he decided that he definitely didn't like it.<p>

"!" he pushed his throttle up as far as it would go the moment a white CGUE popped out from behind some scaffolding and fired its assault rifle at him. "Bastard! Is that you, Rau Le Creuset?!"

Mu detached two of his gun barrels, even as Rau Le Creuset fired on the Zero with his CGUE's assault rifle, which were dodged to great effect. Even as Mu shot from his unit's Linear Cannon, as well as his gun barrels, he could feel like he was being strung along.

_"__You always seem to get in my way, Mu La Flaga!"_ he heard Rau yell over the comm channels. _"Though I imagine you'd probably say the same thing about me!"_ With that, Rau's CGUE went inside the colony harbor, Mu following right behind.

* * *

><p>"The only survivors are those of us who were on the ship when the explosions happened, ma'am," Neumann, the man who had managed to find Badgiruel earlier, explained as they drifted into the <em>Archangel<em>'s bridge. "The problem is that most of the ones who did survive are factory workers. They know the ship, but they don't know how to fly it."

"Current status? What of the ZAFT vessels?" Ensign Badgiruel asked.

"I have no idea," Neumann confessed. "We have our hands full just confirming the situation around us."

Ensign Badgiruel moved to the helm of the bridge and turned on the power, bringing light and water into the ship. "This _Archangel_'s quite the ship," she said. "It would take a whole lot more than this to sink it."

"The harbour exit is blocked off by a rubble heap though," Neumann gestured towards the front of the ship. "We're completely trapped here."

Ensign Badgiruel simply turned on the radio, before pressing a button to see about contacting anyone from the outside. "Huh?" she uttered. "So the airwaves are still being jammed. And yet they… then this was only a diversion?" That was when realization hit. "That must mean ZAFT's true target is Morgenroete!"

Neumann let out a gasp as he, too realized their situation.

"Makes sense," Badgiruel said. "What's happening there? Where are the G-Weapons? This doesn't tell me anything at all!"

_"__05… Stri… here… forces… respond…"_

The two officers standing in front of the console looked up in shock as the radio crackled to life, although the signal was still being heavily jammed. "Could it be?" Neumann looked at Badgiruel.

"Sounds about right," Badgiruel said. "However, I don't know who's piloting it right now… do _you_ know who?" With that question, she looked at Neumann.

Neumann simply shook his head in response. "Only one way to find out… but how are we going to get through the rubble?"

"I think…" Badgiruel answered, trailing off at the end as she stared at the weapons panel.

* * *

><p>"X105 Strike here, Earth Forces, please respond!" Kira called out from the cockpit of the Strike, while she had the keyboard out, trying to bounce her signal off the other radio transmitters in the colony. The only problem was that she wasn't exactly sure where the Archangel was supposed to be, so it was slow going.<p>

Her response was only static, at least for the time being.

* * *

><p>Soon enough, Sai and the others (who had managed to get roped into helping them out) returned with a trailer marked 05, with Sai running over to Murrue and the others. "The number five trailer," Sai said, before looking back at it. "That's the one you asked for, right?"<p>

"Yes, right, thank you," Murrue nodded, looking at the teens sadly. "I wish you guys didn't have to help us out like this… but the situation is critical after all."

Sai looked at Murrue again, hearing the sadness in her tone. "I can understand where you're coming from," he said. "Still, what's next? What are we supposed to do this time, huh?"

"Load the Striker Pack onto the Strike…" Murrue turned to look at Kira. "Once that's done, Kira-kun, try contacting them again."

"Okay, but I'm obviously a girl, miss Ramius," Kira said, while grumbling the last part. With that, she headed over to the Strike Gundam.

* * *

><p>Rau's CGUE moved into the Colony pillar, hiding behind a support shaft, even as he fired on Mu in between different columns with his assault rifle. Mu had the good fortune to dodge the bullets thus far, even as he demanded, "Why in <em>this<em> place?!" With that, he fired from his linear cannon, aiming to hit his rival before the man could do anything to the colony.

Rau continued to fire on his rival, dodging behind another support column, before he said, "Mu, I'd actually be pleased if you vanished right about _now_!" As soon as he said that, he peppered Mu's top gun barrel, forcing the ace pilot to eject all but the left one. Even then, Mu ignored the explosions of his Zero's three dead gun barrels, as he jetted out with Rau following right behind.

* * *

><p>"Launch the ship?!" Neumann questioned Badgiruel. "But that's impossible with the number of people we have!"<p>

"If you have time to argue, spend that time on finding a way to do it!" Badgiruel leaned forward in her seat. "Morgenroete could still be under attack, you know? Are you saying that we should stay confined here and ignore what's going on out there?"

At this point, another officer onboard the _Archangel_ came up to Badgiruel and said, "I've rounded them up for you!"

"To your stations, people!" Badgiruel ordered. "Just carry out the computers' instructions!"

"Right!/Ma'am!" the other two officers acknowledged, before all three got into their seats.

"The ZAFT vessels are still out there! We're in no position to fight them off!" Neumann protested.

"I'm aware of that!" Badgiruel retorted. "As the ship comes online, be ready to fire assault cannons! You _can_ do that, Chief Petty Officer… can't you?"

Neumann, upon realizing he couldn't win this argument, simply got into the right Helm's seat and prepared for battle.

"Alright, commence launch sequence!" Badgiruel ordered. "Due to the nature, we will omit C-30 through L-21 from the process! Main power online!"

Neumann studied the console in front of him closely as he read out, "Output increase stable. Time to required rating… 450 seconds!"

"That's too long!" Badgiruel complained. "What's the status of conduits to Heliopolis?"

The officer that was sitting next to Neumann, Jackie Tonomura, checked the status of conduits. "They're undamaged!" he reported.

"Set us up to draw power through them! Get the conduits online! Relay power to accumulator!" Badgiruel ordered.

"Confirming connection! Flow stable! 20 seconds to required rating!" Neumann quickly complied.

"Life support systems normal!" another of the officers confirmed.

"CIC online!" the final officer confirmed.

"Weapon systems online!" Neumann confirmed. "FCS, contact! Magnetic field chamber and pellet dispenser functioning and steady!"

"Maintaining external impact dampeners at maximum output!" the third officer confirmed.

"Contact main power! Engine stable!" Neumann continued with his readouts from the system.

"All Archangel systems online! Preparations for takeoff complete!" Jackie reported.

"Seal all airtight bulkheads!" Badgiruel ordered. "All hands, be prepared for sudden impacts as well as possible damage to the ship! Advance with caution. Launch _Archangel_!"

"Launching!" Neumann repeated as he ramped up the throttle, causing the majestic vessel to inch forward slowly, even as the lower portion of the ship's 'legs' opened up and a pair of Lohengrin positron blaster cannons revealed themselves, pointing straight forward at the rubble blocking their way out.

* * *

><p>Mu's Zero fired from the last remaining gun barrel, even as Rau jinked his CGUE to dodge the incoming rounds. In a matter of moments, the last gun barrel was stomped on, before Mu was left without his remote weapons. Even then, Mu didn't give up, launching linear rounds at his nemesis all the while.<p>

* * *

><p>"Hanami-nee, are you feeling better now?" Fubuki sat down beside her elder sister, who had managed to calm down enough to stop her trembling.<p>

"So-Somewhat… all thanks to Caridad-san," the elder silverette was fiddling with a piece of paper, trying to fold it into a crane.

"I'm glad," Kyou said from her spot across from the sisters. "I was worried that okaa-san wouldn't be able to help out. Now… where's onee-chan?"

At that moment, the Strike activated, moving towards the trailer and kneeling down, facing the other way.

"Okay, that answers that," Kyou stated.

"I dunno, that doesn't seem like the right kind of weapon to use inside a colony…" Kagami mused as she caught sight of the large cannon inside. "I mean… Fubuki-chan has a similar one on the Ariete Gundam…"

"Why do you think I never fired it?" her younger sister arched an eyebrow as they turned to look at said mobile suit, which was currently kneeling on the ground holding its gigantic rifle by the barrel with its butt resting on the ground.

"…yeah, good point," Kyou said, more for her own benefit. "Still, they shouldn't have given her a Mega Beam Cannon or something like that for the battery alone. I think a sword would do a lot better in this case."

"…I'm feeling very lost right now," Flay remarked from where she was resting beside them.

"You didn't study mobile suit engineering anyway, right? Don't feel down over it," Kagami ruffled the redhead's hair slightly.

"Uh… thanks," Flay said. "Still, now that I'm thinking about it…"

"Yes, Flay-chan?" Kyou asked.

"Well, it's off-topic of what we're talking about now, but, well, what's a Tantric Ritual?" Flay asked.

Hanami almost fainted just from the mention of the ritual, while Kagami and Fubuki blushed bright enough to stop traffic. "Errr…" Fubuki subtly eyed Zamu, who was watching the Strike with a look of fascination. "Wh-Wh-Why are you asking?" she stammered in a manner quite similar to that of her sister's.

Flay, having not caught onto the subtleness, answered, "Well, the Witch Gundam, the machine I was in, said that I needed to partake in one with a member of the opposite gender, at least before I can get up to full capabilities… and there's a time limit to this."

"Eh, uh, ah…" Fubuki looked to Kagami for help, but the red-eyed silverette didn't appear to have any idea what to do either. "Umm… Flay-chan… a Tantric Ritual is when…" she trailed off, her blush deepening as well as she found herself at a loss for words.

"Umm… basically it's… having sex," Kagami blurted out, turning her gaze aside, unable to meet the redhead's eyes.

Fubuki elbowed Kagami in response to her bluntness.

Flay was flabbergasted upon hearing that. Before she could say anything, however—

"Wait… that's a reason for sex?!" Kyou exclaimed.

—Flay was glad she didn't have to say anything.

Kagami's eyes lit up in realization though, as she turned back to Flay. "Wait, you said the Witch Gundam told you that you needed to partake in a Tantric Ritual to get up to full capabilities? How did it tell you? Would it work for… us too?" she demanded.

Fubuki elbowed Kagami again.

"Er… yes, it did," Flay answered. "It told me via the control console… and I don't know if it would work for you too."

"Well," Kyou said solemnly. "I suppose that you'll need to find someone you like enough to help you out with it. Any particular details about this?" she raised an eyebrow when she caught sight of the three Yukikaze sisters all simultaneously shooting glances in Zamu's direction.

"Well… we both need to release at the same time," Flay said. "I didn't know what it meant until now, though."

"Tantric Ritual… with…" Fubuki whispered, glassy-eyed before she regained her senses and started bashing her head against a pillar. _'Bad Fubuki! Bad Fubuki! Don't think those kinds of stuff!'_ she quickly told herself.

"Okay, girls, what are we missing out on?" Kyou asked, tone brooking no nonsense.

"Nothing!" the three silverettes shouted at once, although they were still stealing glances in Zamu's direction every now and then.

"Eh?" Kyou asked, before she grinned. "Oooh, _now_ I get it. You three have crushes on Zamu-san."

"NOOOOO!" Fubuki started bashing her head against the pillar again.

"Ah… eh… umm…" Kagami had one of her very rare speechless moments.

Hanami blushed bright red and started spluttering for a while before passing out.

"Huh… who knew they would react like that?" Kyou asked nobody in particular. That was when she stole a glance in Zamu's direction. "Still… what sort of man _is_ he like, anyway?"

Kira's voice could be heard from the Strike's cockpit. "The powerpack! Which one is that?"

Murrue answered near immediately, "The weapons and powerpack are integrated! Mount the whole unit!"

With a sigh, Kyou said, "Smooth, onee-chan… that's one way to break the mood, y'know that?"

"I… don't think she meant it," Flay said.

With another sigh, Kyou said, "Well, I'll be boarding the Vanguard Gundam again. Hopefully, I can manage to use it in MA mode." With that, she walked off to the Vanguard Gundam.

"Oh! Good luck, Kyou-chan," Flay called out to her friend, making sure Kyou heard her.

* * *

><p>Mu and Rau continued their firefight for a fair bit, both getting concerned about their low ammo, though Rau had more to spare by a long shot. When they both headed towards the central part of the shaft, things started to go crazy.<p>

* * *

><p>"The evacuation orders are still in effect, I guess," Mir said.<p>

Sai, who was looking at a computer, asked, "I wonder if my father and the others had made it to the shelters alright?"

Sighing, Kuzzey said, "I wanna hurry up with this and go home."

At that moment, the central shaft broke partially, letting Mu and Rau out of the interior.

* * *

><p>Rau, who was being chased by Mu, looked through his unit's camera eye and saw the Strike Gundam as well as the other remaining machines. "Hmm…" Rau said. "So, those must be them."<p>

* * *

><p>"The final units?!" Mu asked, to confirm what he was seeing. It took him a bit, but he blinked in surprise. "Wait… what're <em>those<em> extra units?!"

Still, despite that, Mu chased Rau across the airways, even going as far as to fire his linear cannon at Rau.

* * *

><p>"Mount the equipment before it's too late!" Murrue cried out, running towards the Strike Gundam, even though she didn't know where Kyou went.<p>

* * *

><p>Kyou was in the cockpit of the Vanguard Gundam, ready and willing to shoot down her foe. "Vanguard Gundam, ready and raring to go," she said in complete monotone. "Target foe? Rau Le Creuset of the Le Creuset Team." With that, she took off in her unit's Waverider mode, which was the Mobile Armor form. "Let's see if you can keep up, Rau Le Creuset."<p>

* * *

><p>Rau charged towards the nearly prone Moebius Zero, flying with all his ability to reach the Mobile Armor, even with the Heavy Sword in his CGUE's left hand. He charged towards Mu's unit—<p>

_"__Oi! Keep your blade away from a unit that can't fight back!"_ he heard a female voice in complete monotone over the comm channels.

—only for a barrage of beam shots to get between he and Mu.

"What the—" Rau got out, mere moments before he had to jink and dodge out of the way of a beam saber attached to a rifle. "Who _are_ you?!"

_"__You won't need my name in this life,"_ the female said over the comms. _"Have Shinigami-sama tell you my name when he judges you."_ With that, Kyou worked to slice at the CGUE. Even so, the female was having trouble finding a way to dent Rau's custom unit.

_"__I want in too!"_ a new female voice interjected as yet another Mobile Armour flew at the CGUE, almost impaling it on its nose were it not for the quick dodge Rau pulled off. _"Kyou-chan, you're not the only one with a transformable mobile suit, ya know? And I'm not letting you face down this guy alone!"_ Kagami called out over the comms.

_"__Thanks, Kagami-chan,"_ Kyou said to her friend. Turning her attention to Rau, she moved to impale the man's unit with her Bayonet, despite the fact that he dodged. _"I won't let you continue your acts of terror on a neutral colony any further!"_

"Tch, the difference in performance is greater than I expected…!" Rau gritted his teeth, continuing to evade the attacks. "And what is this sensation...?" he thought out loud as he was suddenly feeling a lot more presences than normal around him.

* * *

><p>At that point, <em>Archangel<em> approached the back of the docking bay, guns about ready to fire. "As we hit maximum combat speed, fire assault cannons!" Badgiruel ordered.

At that moment, anti-matter blasts shot forth from the assault cannons, hitting the wall they were facing, and causing it to explode.

* * *

><p>Rau looked to his left, even as Kyou and Kagami stopped in their spots in midair to look, and gasped out, "What?!" Turning to see the Archangel, he bemoaned, "Not the new warship! The team failed to destroy it!"<p>

* * *

><p>Mu, who was flying in the same general area, asked to himself, "A warship? Within the colony?"<p>

* * *

><p>Murrue, who had gathered the non-combatants and the pilots outside their machines, called out as she looked up, "Look! It's the <em>Archangel<em>!"

* * *

><p><em>"<em>_Gotta say, that's a nice-looking ship,"_ Kagami whistled appreciatively as she flew over the _Archangel_.

"Kagami-chan, we don't have time to gawk and look at the new ship," Kyou said, still in monotone. "We have someone to take care of." Taking a quick look at her sister's Gundam, she saw that the unit was colored, much like the Vanguard Gundam. "So _that's_ what it looks like with Phase Shift on… nice."

_"__I sure wish I had it. It sounds like such a handy thing to have, being invincible to physical rounds,"_ Kagami shook her head sadly. _"I wonder if we could salvage a few spare pieces of PS-capable armour and rig them on…"_

"Doubtful," Kyou said, raising an eyebrow at Kagami's actions. "Why? You want Phase Shift Armor for your Gundam?"

_"__Of course I do! Except the Highwind Gundam has so much extra equipment that putting Phase Shift on them all just isn't cost-effective,"_ Kagami used the lull in combat to bring up a list of equipment she could load on her machine.

Kyou blinked at the list of equipment, even as she noticed Rau's CGUE attempt to run a strafing job on the warship. "Wow… that's a _lot_ of equipment," she said in surprise.

_"__It was designed as a transformable, lighter version of Hanami-chan's Exodus, which was itself designed as an alternative to the Strike apparently,"_ Kagami explained, even while she jetted towards Rau in an attempt to interrupt the strafing run.

While Rau was trying to shoot the _Archangel_, the vessel moved starboard, completely dodging the bullets. He was about to move onto the Strike Gundam—

_"__Kira-chan, look out!"_ Kagami shouted.

—when he got forced to move away from the ground, the Highwind Gundam shooting at him with its beam rifle.

_"__Stay away from my best friends, you white-coloured bastard!"_ the silverette snarled from her cockpit.

It was at that point when Kyou felt a thought enter her head. _'Keep Le Creuset busy… I'm gonna shoot him down with the Agni beam cannon.'_ "What the… who said that?" she asked out loud.

_"__Tha-That didn't come over the radio…" _Kagami blinked in surprise, but followed the instruction anyway and fired a burst of rounds from her beam rifle.

Kyou shrugged, even as moved her own gun barrels and her beam rifle into position, the awareness she was having directing her to fire at places that would keep Le Creuset busy. Even as he dodged, she kept firing her beams, doing everything she could to follow the directive.

Rau was actually starting to feel like he had bitten off a bit more than he could chew as he was starting to get hard pressed to dodge the attacks coming in from all directions. His senses were working in overdrive, trying to predict every possible shot, but the presences he was picking up kept nagging at the back of his consciousness, forcing him to try and find the sources.

Even as he tried to dodge the attacks headed his way, he felt that his luck was about to fade, especially since this was a battle he couldn't help but feel he'd lose. Before he forgot, he sent a coded transmission to the _Vesalius_ that had all the combat data to the second up to that point, and kept dodging for a few seconds. As soon as the transmission was successfully sent, he prepared to—

A burst of beam energy that was akin to a positron blaster fired at him, straight from the Strike Gundam, completely vaporizing him and leaving only his rifle and a hand attached to it.

—be part of the list of casualties in this battle, even as the beam continued on and hit the wall of the colony.

_"__Um, Kira-chan…" _Kagami turned to look at the Strike, which had its smoking beam cannon still aimed at where the CGUE had been taken out. _"I get it that you need extreme firepower to take out an ace… but… I'm not footing the repair bill for that,"_ the Highwind pointed at the giant hole in the colony wall, which even now was starting to leak air out.

_"__Uh… oops?"_ Kira semi-asked. _"I swear, this was the only thing I could think of for how to kill the bastard!"_

"Onee-chan," Kyou said with a sigh. "Is that weapon you're holding an _Agni_?"

_"__Er… yes?"_ Kira replied.

"So _that's_ where the thought with instructions came from!" Kyou said in exasperation. "Okay, onee-chan, please, whatever you do, _don't fire the Agni at full power in the future_!"

With a loud gulp, Kira said, _"Y-y-y-y-yes ma'am! I'll keep the Agni at less than full power in the future!"_

Kyou nodded sagely, before a thought struck her. "Oh, disregard that if you have to fire on fortifications the enemy has, onee-chan," she amended.

_"__I kinda wish I could get one of those, but it kinda causes too much collateral damage…"_ Kagami sighed, still looking at the hole. _"We should probably get everyone into the _Archangel_ before the colony completely depressurizes. At this rate it'll be another year before they can fix this mess…"_

* * *

><p><em>"<em>_What do you _mean_ Commander Le Creuset's signal was lost?!"_ Yzak demanded of Frederik Ades over the comm channel in the Gamow to the Vesalius.

"Exactly what I meant by it! His CGUE's signal cut out just a few seconds ago! We're still trying to figure out what happened, he did manage to transfer some combat data over, but I'd hazard a guess that he's…" the ship's captain trailed off, not even sure if it was even possible.

_"__Well, if it's possible for Commander Le Creuset to lose, then he would be captured and most likely interrogated by the enemy!"_ Dearka retorted. _"As it stands, there's no way the Commander could die on us, especially since—"_

"Okay, rookies, _enough_!" Miguel roared out from his spot at the bridge of the Vesalius. "Since the ZAFT Militia follows the orders of the person on a team with the most seniority, the highest rank, or both, you'll have to follow _my_ orders! For starters, I want you, Nicol, to take your newly acquired machine into the area where we lost the former Commander's signal, with a great deal of stealth to make sure you don't get spotted. I want you to make sure we find out what caused Commander Le Creuset to fall, and if he's still alive, or if he's to be listed as KIA!"

_"__Understood, I'll get to work on it immediately,"_ Nicol saluted and kicked off out of the screen.

Athrun turned to face Miguel and asked, "Do you have any idea what could have happened to the Commander, Miguel?"

Looking at Athrun, Miguel said, "Hell if I know… but I do know we need to gather intel, and do this the _right_ way!" Turning his attention to Yzak and Dearka, he said, "No matter what, we will not enter Heliopolis again, unless the CLA attack inside the colony! We're to wait outside for the OMNI Enforcer to leave the colony Orb owns, like we should have done, if only Commander Le Creuset was less of an idiot!"

_"__Tch, damned Naturals…"_ Yzak gritted his teeth and slammed his fist into the wall beside the terminal. _"I swear, if you really killed Commander Le Creuset… I'll hunt you down to the ends of space and have my revenge!"_

"Yzak, calm down!" Rusty shouted over the comm. "You really think we need you going suicidal because someone killed the Commander?! Even with him not being one of us?!"

_"__But… the Commander…!"_ the hotheaded pilot growled.

"I checked his medical files while he was away, _Yzak_," Rusty admitted. "I can send you a copy of said files, if you want… the Commander's a clone of a Natural named Al Da Flaga, and has to take meds to keep his sanity in check."

_"__Wha-" _Yzak's expression turned gobsmacked. _"Yo-You mean all this time, he was… one of them!?"_

"Apparently, yeah," Rusty answered. "However, that just goes to show how good he actually is as a pilot… or rather, how good he actually _was_. Even so, I don't know his reason for joining ZAFT, but only because nobody asked."

Yzak was left speechless. _"I… I need some time to think this over…"_ he kicked off out of the screen, still looking rather stunned.

Athrun looked at his roommate and asked, "Is it true he was a Natural?"

"Oh, whoops, I forgot to say he was enhanced to be a Coordinator somewhere along the line," Rusty admitted. "However, the cloning process is really taxing on one's sanity, as the meds can attest to." With that, he lifted the bottle of medicine up to show the rest of the people in the area.

"I can't believe it…" Frederik shook his head as he absorbed the information. "I knew there was something up with him, but this…?"

Miguel shook his head. "Well, no matter what, we need to stick with a more legal plan," he said. "I'm not going to order us to fire on the enemy ship with D grade equipment, not while it's within neutral territory! Everyone, we'll wait for them to head out, _then_ we'll make our move!"

"Sir!" the remaining pilots saluted Miguel at that.

* * *

><p><strong>Xamusel: Okay… this was a trying time for both Astral and I. For one thing, we've been sidetracked by another person's *cough*117Jorn*cough* story idea, which is a straight-up crossover of SEED and oMSG. For another, we had to figure out how to make the plot move forward, especially since we didn't know how to make a more original plot out of this.<strong>

**Well, finally, I've been reminded of a website that I made a while ago. This website? Well… I'd rather not be censored for this, but it's Xamuland, the revival of UFF. I know the URL could use a lot of work… I mean, seriously, it could.**

**Anyway, I better let Astral get a chance to talk, at least for now.**

* * *

><p><strong>AstralXYZ: Yes, we did just kill Rau off early. I do feel it's going to give us the chance to have a lot more leeway to write a more original plot though, considering he was behind most of the events that happened in Gundam Seed. I'm pretty sure everyone reading can see how the pairings are going to go, considering we couldn't be more obvious about it. =P Having a lot of fun writing this though!<strong>

* * *

><p><strong>Xamusel: I seriously hope you guys enjoy this story as much as we do writing it.<strong>

**Now, to start answering reviews from the previous chapter:**

**To mister idea (can't really use your actual pen name here... stupid system): Sorry, we're getting to the point where Magic is more prevalent; just give it a couple chapters at least. Of course, there will be equal opportunity for both sides, if you're curious.**

**To Takeshi Yamato: Hmm… that's a good point you brought up. My thoughts were that Kira would be one of the girls in Zamu's unwanted harem (though, if we get honest, they'll make sure it gets wanted and needed); same with Flay and the OCs that currently have Magic in their abilities list. As for the reason for the rating… yes, yes it will. I hope that satisfies you and anyone else here.**

**Thank you all for reading so far! Also, when you get the chance, please read my profile page to see what ways I have to update you all on my writing status. I promise you, I'll do my absolute best to update often, and as much as possible.**


	4. Shifting the Land of War

**Xamusel: Okay, everyone, welcome to the next chapter of Mobile Suit Gundam SEED: Revised. We hope that you've enjoyed the story thus far, and we look forward to continuing this work to the end of the known timeline, and extending it out past the known.**

**This chapter will have a massive struggle between the heroes and both (current) groups of antagonists. One of the groups uses Mobile Suits, the other uses Magic, and we'll see what it takes to take out at least a reasonable chunk of the enemy forces. Of course, reasonable means about 5% of the Mobile Suit using group, and a (relatively) small amount of apprentices for the Magicals.**

**Now, anyway, off to the actual content of the story!**

* * *

><p><span>Chapter 4<span>: Shifting the Land of War

* * *

><p>By the time the Moebius Zero managed to land on top of the <em>Archangel<em>, everyone in the group of friends and the adults had made it to the right leg of the warship. With the Strike depositing the non-pilot children and the adults, they had managed to get themselves barely settled on the ground when Murrue was called out. "Lieutenant Ramius!"

"Ensign Natarle Badgiruel," Murrue replied to that, turning to see Badgiruel and a group of officers and marines arrive.

Natarle saluted Murrue and said, "It's a tremendous relief to see that you're safe."

Murrue returned the salute and said, "You as well. I'm pleased to see that you've protected the _Archangel_. You do realize you've saved us."

At that point, the Gundams unloaded their pilots, causing the crew to look at the young man and women incredulously.

"Oi, oi, aren't they just… teens?" one of the mechanics whispered to another.

"I don't know about the teens part - they really don't look the part with those porn star-like proportions…" his friend whispered back, mostly staring at the women.

Even as the pilots got to the ground again, they were congratulated by their friends, who they had rescued from certain danger.

"Lieutenant Ramius, what's going on?" Natarle asked her superior.

Before Murre could answer that, a man's voice piped up. "Wow… what a surprise," he said, walking up to the crew. "I'm Lieutenant Mu La Flaga of the Seventh Orbital Fleet at your service. It's an honor," he finished with a salute.

Murrue and Natarle both saluted the man, having known a lot about him. "Lieutenant Murrue Ramius of Sector Two, Fifth Special Division. I am a crewmember of this ship."

"Ensign Natarle Badgiruel, same Division."

With that, the salutes went down, even as Mu asked, "I would like permission to come aboard this vessel. May I ask who's in command around here?

Natarle looked conflicted about this, even as she said, "The Captain and all of the superior officers of this ship have perished in battle. Therefore, I believe it's Lieutenant Ramius who's next in command."

"M-Me?" Murrue blinked. "But… doesn't Lieutenant La Flaga have seniority in this situation?"

"Man, what an unmitigated disaster," Mu said, rubbing his brow with a finger. "Actually, I don't know the first thing about this ship at all, nor anything else on what's going on. I never got training for this part of the service. With that in mind…"

"I see…" Murrue nodded. "In that case, I suppose I have no choice but to take command…" she reluctantly said.

"Murrue-san, you'll do fine as a captain," Fubuki encouraged her with a smile.

"Well, you'd best listen to her encouragement," Kagami grinned. "She's a very good judge of character."

"In any case," Mu said. "I know you have some reservations for taking command, but please grant me permission to come aboard, Lieutenant Ramius. The ship I was assigned to engaged the enemy and was downed."

"Oh, uh, sure," Murrue said. "Permission granted."

"Incidentally, who are our cute little pilots here?" the Moebius Zero pilot gave the group of teens a once over. "Aren't they a bit too young to be piloting the G-Weapons?"

"As you can see, they're teenage civilians," Murrue said, looking in the pilots' direction. "For some reason, they were in the factory district during the attack. I had no choice but to bring them aboard the G-Weapons, even the units that aren't ours at all."

"S-Sorry for the intrusion!" Hanami hurriedly bowed, causing some of the crew's eyes to bug out as the fact that she wasn't wearing a bra became apparent through her… bouncing assets.

"We-Well… I suppose given the circumstances, we don't really have a choice other than to bring the Orb units aboard, huh…" Mu tore his eyes away from the oblivious silverette and towards the Exodus, Highwind and Ariete which were standing in the hangar. "Although… what's up with the ones that look like they were designed by someone with really odd tastes?" he frowned, this time looking at the Magus and the Witch. "Pretty damn sure I've never seen those around before."

"Well, I have," Murrue admitted. "However, I only thought that someone had a strange design choice for them, until I saw what was considered impossible by reality."

"Huh?" Even Mu was a little confused by the statement. "Don't tell me they can use magic?" he asked dubiously.

**_"_****_Earth Herald!"_** Zamu called out, getting their attention, even as a patch of dirt outside the ship turned into a 10 meter tall golem. "Proof enough?" he asked.

Mu gaped at the earthen construct, before rubbing his eyes and looking at it again. "Lieutenant Ramius, please tell me I'm hallucinating," he muttered.

Fubuki stared at Mu intently. "You're not getting too old for this shit, as you so kindly put it in your head… And no, this is not really the Harry Potter kind of magic we're talking about here. And… I know you're secretly checking out Lieu-"

"LALALALALALA!" Mu quickly shouted as loud as he could in a panic to block out Fubuki's voice. "I get it, I get it!"

"-'s ass," Fubuki finished, although she was somewhat blushing at what she had managed to dig up from the pilot's head.

"Er… moving on," Murrue said, unsure of what to make of that. "Their names are Kira Yamato, Kyou Yamato, Hanami Yukikaze, Kagami Yukikaze, Fubuki Yukikaze, Zamu Uraki, and Flay Allster," Murrue indicated them one by one.

"I can definitely see the family resemblance there…" Mu nodded appreciatively, although Fubuki gave him a disgruntled look when he looked at her and quickly covered her bum with her hands. He coughed slightly and looked aside for a moment to hide his blush, before he scanned across Zamu and Flay, before doing a double take as he caught sight of the latter. "Wait, Flay Allster? Allster? As in the Vice Foreign Minister of the At-Fed, George Allster!?"

"Ye-yes," Flay answered, more than a tad embarrassed. "He's my father, regrettably, especially since he doesn't see non-Naturals as human."

"Coordinators can be nice people too," Kagami agreed shamelessly, eliciting raised eyebrows from Hanami and Fubuki.

"Man, this is going to be a press release and a half for the man," Mu said, palming his face. "I don't need to ask for an autograph from your father, especially since we're both not big fans of the man."

"Anyways," Murrue said, attempting to move the conversation back on track. "Thanks to their efforts, we were successful in defeating at least 25 ZAFT Mobile Suits, in addition to securing these last units of ours."

"2-25 MS kills!?" Mu spluttered as he did another double take. "Oi, oi, they're just rookie pilots, even with the whole magic thing! Are you serious? Well, then again, I did just see them take down Rau Le Creuset..."

Kira's mood darkened for a moment, before she said, "The 25 MS kills were all CLA units, Lieutenant La Flaga. That should satisfy your need to know."

Mu's eyes widened in shock. "Fuck me," he muttered. "Well, you have my thanks for ridding the world of 25- actually, 26 more scum, counting Old Mask Face. Trust me, none of us have any love for those… trash."

Kyou nodded for her sister. "We had an idea about that, considering that we were almost completely brainwashed by them," she said.

The Moebius Zero's pilot's eyes bugged out as he did yet another double take. "I'm getting too old for this shit," he muttered, punctuating his feelings with a palm to the forehead.

"So, they're that bad?" Zamu asked, oblivious to the CLA in general.

"YES!" was the resounding answer.

"…okay, shutting up," he said.

"What kind of rock in space did you manage to hide under for all these years, Zamu-kun?" Kagami gaped.

"Zamu-kun?" Fubuki whispered to her red-eyed elder sister, causing her to quickly cover her mouth with her hands as she realized her mistake.

"Uh…" Zamu answered intelligently. "I was travelling around a whole lot, so I didn't find out anything relevant to today's times, especially since Orb never had a problem with the CLA even entering the territory until now." Looking at Kagami, he said, "Actually, I don't mind if you girls dropped your politeness around me, including honorifics… I'm sure it'd make for a lot more pleasant experiences."

Hanami couldn't help turning red at the implications of dropping the honorifics in traditional Japanese culture. "Umm… Zamu-kun… It's a bit of a ha-habit for us… but we can try…" she replied.

"That's all I ask," Zamu stated. "Oh, is it alright if I drop the honorifics with you girls?"

"Yes," Kira and Kyou said automatically.

"Umm…" Hanami's blush suddenly spread to her shoulders. "O-O-Okay…" she said, before promptly passing out into Kagami's waiting arms.

"Dammit, we just woke her up just now too…" Kagami grumbled, although she herself was blushing slightly too. "I'm okay with it, Zamu-ku… Zamu."

"I-I'm fine too," Fubuki stammered slightly.

Flay spoke up at that point. "Er, isn't now the time to ask about our genetic background?"

"Oh yeah," Mu looked back up at the machines standing in the hangar. "The OS wasn't complete last I heard… and no Natural can possibly rewrite the whole thing as fast as you girls got them combat-ready just now…" he narrowed his eyes barely noticeably. "You're Coordinators, aren't you?"

Kyou spoke up first. "I'm an Enhanced Natural, actually."

"I wasn't born with modded genes," Flay answered.

"I was born in Japan to a traditional family," Zamu said.

"First Generation Coordinator here," Kagami smiled as she attempted to defuse the tension in the air. "Nice person right here!" she stuck her chest out proudly as she referred back to her earlier statement.

"Same as Kagami-nee and Hanami-nee," Fubuki nodded, although she had to stop herself from giggling at her sister.

Hanami was still out cold.

Kira sighed in acceptance of her fate. "Yes, I'm a First Generation Coordinator," she said.

The soldiers murmured among themselves slightly, one or two raising their guns halfway before sighing and lowering them again.

"Don't worry, I didn't come out of that Blue Cosmos cesspool," Mu chuckled light-heartedly. "It's just that the crew here is a little more used to getting shot at by Coordinators, not being helped by them, so they're a little more… jumpy."

"Lieutenant La Flaga, what shall we do now?" Natarle asked, unsure of the proper response.

"Well, just leave them be. They're just kids who managed to get caught up in this war by pure chance anyway," Mu shrugged. "We don't have the right to force them to fight for us, much less force our ideals on them."

"I was more asking about the situation of us leaving the colony," Natarle elaborated.

"About that, considering we just offed Rau Le Creuset, I don't think his team waiting outside is going to be too happy about that," the Moebius Zero ace sighed. "I don't think they'll have the guts to attack us at this point without him, but they definitely won't sit idly by and just let us leave either. And if the CLA is involved… those bastards will be baying for blood as well, Le Creuset's death be damned, neutral colony be damned. We'd be endangering Heliopolis by staying here, so I agree that we'd be better off leaving the colony," he reasoned.

With a sigh of collective anxiety, the crew of the Archangel and the civilians that had come aboard realized that they all needed to leave before things got out of hand, even though the civvies wanted nothing to do with the whole thing.

* * *

><p><em>"<em>_Report, Magician,"_ The World asked the holographic projection of the man with a I projected over his face.

_"__We ran into a roadblock, The World,"_ Magician said. _"A large group of inferiors thought it a good idea to attack the last known area of where we detected unregistered magical energy. Thus far, progress has been slow going, even without this roadblock."_

The World was silent for a moment._ "How recently was this magical energy detected?" _he asked.

_"__Within the last month,"_ Magician answered. _"I don't have all the specifics, but it happened before The Fool thought it a good idea to gain leverage on Justice through the man's daughter… it failed, by the way."_

A frown was barely visible on The World's face. _"I assume this is the most recent lead we have gotten?"_

_"__Yes, sir,"_ Magician replied. _"The Fool managed to detect unregistered magical energy in a residential block, which was full of people living in a space colony."_

The World smiled. _"Send four teams of our best men. This may be our best possible lead yet. So far none of our people have managed to find a lead in a residential area this fresh."_

_"__Yes, sir!"_ Magician saluted smartly before his projection faded away, leaving The World alone in the meeting room.

_"__We have been set back enough by the accursed inferiors' Neutron Jammers…" _The World steepled his fingers and rested his head on them. _"Today, we will be one step closer to finding the advantage we need to win us the war!"_

* * *

><p><em>"<em>_What do you _mean_ you lost 25 Mobile Suits to a stupid group of Naturals?!"_ a man yelled over the comm channels.

"Exactly as I said it, Your Excellency," a White Coat answered, unfazed by the man's yell. "We're sorry, Defense Committee Chairman Patrick Zala, but things went crazy, especially since the Naturals have developed an OS faster than we'd like for their usage."

_"__Ugh… Damn it!"_ Patrick could be seen slamming his fist on the table. _"I'm sending you the _Rohault_ and the _Coriolis_! Their mobile suit complement should be enough for you, right?"_

"Sir, with all due respect, we don't know if we'll be able to make it out of here alive in order to actually _get_ the ships," the White Coat argued back. "Besides, aren't those ships _Nazca_-class?"

_"__Those are the new _Atlantica-_class MS carriers! Each one carries up to 18 mobile suits!" _came the reply.

Blinking, the White Coat spluttered, "Th-th-the _Atlantica_-class?! Sir, I didn't know the class was even fully constructed for the ship of the line! Forget about the other two that you just sent us!"

_"__We moved up the schedule for the war. Don't fail me this time, Commander Salta,"_ Patrick Zala pointed a finger at the screen before the transmission abruptly cut off.

"Sir!" Commander Sasha Salta saluted. Turning to face her XO, she ordered, "Angie, I want fifteen recon scouts out there, _RFN!_"

"Ma'am?" the XO, Angie Sebastian, asked in confusion. "Aren't we waiting for the new ships and the replacement Mobile Suits?"

"In war, you need to be at least two or three steps ahead of the enemy," Sasha said. "The men on the team had someone smart enough to escape from the Colony in a Commando Suit. This time, we're going to be doing the same, only _we'll_ be doing it in _reverse_."

"Uh, alright, ma'am," Angie nodded. "Bridge to crew quarters. Put Aloines on the line," she quickly started issuing orders.

* * *

><p>"How can they sleep at a time like this?" Kuzzey asked out loud, referring to the sleeping pilots.<p>

"Cut them some slack, they've been fighting for our sake all this time," Mir chuckled as she looked over the pilots' sleeping forms.

"Yeah, Kuzzey," Tolle said, a semi-serious look on his face. "Would _you_ be up and at 'em after piloting that much against a bunch of soldiers like they have?"

"Well, no…" Kuzzey drew back slightly before sighing. "We really do owe them, don't we?"

"Yes, we do," Sai answered.

"I can understand that they'd probably rather not fight for the OMNI Enforcer," Cagalli said, having joined the group earlier. "I mean, they're Orb citizens, aren't they?"

Hanami chose that moment to mumble unintelligibly in her sleep as she rolled on her bed, clutching a paper crane in her hand delicately.

"Yeah, they are," Mir confirmed with a giggle as she looked at the blue-eyed silverette. "I really do wish we could go back to our normal lives, but with the colony the way it is now…"

"I can understand that much," Cagalli said with a nod. "I would rather not force citizens of my home country to fight for a power that isn't their home, even if it's a good idea at the time."

"Speaking of which," Sai said, turning to look at Cagalli. "What brought you up to Heliopolis in the first place?"

Cagalli's eyes widened in surprise, before she recovered enough to say, "The Earth Forces Prototype Mobile Weapons was what brought me up here."

Hanami started rolling on her bed again, this time getting dangerously close to the edge.

"You mean the mobile suits they were piloting?" Sai asked.

"Yes," Cagalli admitted. "I wanted it to be a fabrication, but… it seems like Father betrayed us all."

"Er, actually," Sai said. "I think it was the Sahaku clan."

"What makes you say that, Sai?" Kuzzey asked with a raised eyebrow.

Sai lowered his head and sighed. "Essentially, since the Argyle clan is subservient of the Sahakus, we tend to be stuck with certain jobs they want done that they feel they shouldn't do," he said. "Not only that, but I was told we would be making something for the military, just not the specifics of the job."

"So, what, they stuck the rest of us with you and the others in the Argyle clan?" Tolle asked, incredulously.

"Seems like it, I'm really sorry to say…" Sai looked aside nervously.

"Mugyaa?"

***CRASH!***

"Eh?!" everyone awake looked at the site of Hanami sprawled out about the floor, still sleeping barely.

"Oh, fer cryin' out loud!" Tolle said exasperatedly. "Seriously, how does she sleep like that?!"

The oblivious silverette had a bit of an uncomfortable look on her face, but was otherwise still sleeping on her front, although the fall had slightly upset her skirt so it rode higher than usual and exposed her panties.

The men in the room looked away from the sleeping silverette on the ground, glancing at Cagalli and Mir. "Er, would either of you please fix her skirt?" Sai asked, clearly uncomfortable by the sight of her panties.

Mir quickly did so, and tried to lift her up back to her own bed, only to realize she didn't have the body strength. Glaring at Hanami's chest, she simply settled for rolling her around so she was sleeping on her back instead. "She eats too much," she declared.

Hanami mumbled in a bit of a disgruntled tone.

"Oh, fer cryin' out loud," Cagalli said. "Seriously, how is it _possible_ for _anyone_ to move with those jugs on, anyway?!"

"By any chance… Cagalli-san, are you… jealous?" Mir quirked an eyebrow.

Cagalli merely stood stock still at hearing that question, her body looking rigid from shock. "M-M-M-M-Maybe?" she asked with a stutter.

"Don't worry about it. I know I'm jealous of her too," the brunette grumbled. "And the guys love it, guys being guys."

"Hey, Mir, don't worry," Tolle said. "I'll be happy no matter what with you. I don't care so much about the size of your proportions, but the size of your heart is what matters."

"Thanks, Tolle," Mir smiled, before she shot a small glare at him. "But don't think I haven't seen you eyeing the Yukikaze sisters…"

Tolle winced at hearing that. "Urk."

"Burrrn, man!" Kuzzey said, teasingly.

"Oi," Tolle grumbled and shot a glare at Kuzzey. "What about you then? Don't you still have that photo of Fubuki in your wallet?"

"No, actually, I lost it a month ago," Kuzzey answered, not ashamed to say that. "Still, it's a common thing amongst us guys, to be attracted to large busts."

Mir scowled. "Must ask Yukikazes about their secret… must ask Yukikazes about their secret…" she repeated.

Cagalli facepalmed at the knowledge that Mir wanted to know how to get her bust size up. "Seriously, I'm not sure what's so special about their bust sizes," she said. "Don't those hurt a girl's back?"

"Mugyaa?" Hanami groggily rubbed her eyes. "Morning…" she greeted sleepily.

"Good afternoon. Hope you slept well, Hanami-chan," Mir said, cheerfully giving the other girl a good greeting.

"Mmm… Why am I on the floor?" the silverette blinked when she realized she had been sleeping on a much harder surface than the one she had gotten onto.

"You rolled off the bed, Hanami-chan," Sai said, shaking his head. "I don't know how you slept through that at all."

"She does that all the time," Kagami slowly cracked an eye open as she yawned. "Don't ask me, even I as her twin have no idea how she does it."

"Is that so?" Tolle asked.

"You can try getting dragged off the bed with her," Kagami suggested with a snicker. "I almost suffocated this one time because she somehow ended up rolling onto my face in her sleep and mashing my head into her breasts."

A wince from everyone else save for a blushing Hanami gave her the answer that she needed that they got the picture.

* * *

><p>It took Sasha and her recon scouts a bit of time, but they found the hole in the colony wall, from the same direction Rau Le Creuset was killed in action. After taking a bit of time to see about securing the area, they moved into position, heading into the colony itself. While they took the precautions of making sure their helmets were on, they also came armed and ready for combat, to be safe.<p>

"Alright, team," Sasha said. "We go in, gather intel, and leave. None of us know what the enemy is capable of doing, nor do we know if the Naturals are using a Natural Friendly OS or not. We simply need to gather all the available intel on our foes, no matter what. Am I clear?"

"Yes, ma'am!" the recon team saluted smartly as they dispersed.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, within the colony walls, a large group of Mobile Armors was gathering near the residential district of Heliopolis. These Mobile Armors were round orbs with arms and legs, with a pair of vulcans in the area right under the cockpit, while the spherical cockpit had a gel-like substance inside that acted like a conduit with the pilots suspended inside. The interface for the systems was projected as a set of floating holograms around the pilot, while they controlled their units with their minds.<p>

The lead unit of these Mobile Armors, called Staffs by the pilots and those in the know on them, turned towards a random house and moved an arm out. _"No, wrong house,"_ the lead pilot said. _"Master Magician wouldn't lie about this, though we don't know whether or not the signatures left the colony."_

_"__They can't have,"_ another pilot replied, even as he checked the situation around them, with deserted streets and rubble lying around. _"Not so soon after that battle."_

_"__I hope you're right,"_ the lead pilot said. _"I would hate to be seen as a fool for not checking everything. In this case, for not checking the battlefield itself, before we wrote this location off as a bust."_

_"__That being said, I'm not too comfortable being here considering ZAFT is likely still hanging around outside… I know they can't detect our Gates, but still…"_ one of the other pilots' Staff could actually be seen shuffling in discomfort as the interface picked up on his thoughts.

_"__We don't want to jinx anything that could go wrong,"_ the lead pilot pointed out. _"No matter what, we need to keep on doing this right. Now…"_ he turned to face the rest of teams that were combined as one battleforce. _"Do whatever it takes to succeed, but _don't_ throw secrecy out the window!"_

_"__Yes, sir!"_ the unit chorused as one.

* * *

><p>With a sigh, Murrue, who was now in the At-Fed uniform, put a phone down on the armrest of her seat. "The colony interior has been almost 100% evacuated," she said to her fellow junior officers Mu La Flaga and Natarle Badgiruel. "But I'm told that the incident that just happened has upped the hazard level to 9." With that, she turned the chair around to them and got up to walk to them.<p>

"And that means that the shelters have been locked down completely," Mu said, not liking the situation. "Huh… so then, what are we gonna do with those civvies? It's too late now to look for a shelter to toss them into, isn't it?"

"Lieutenant Ramius needed to keep an eye on the children as they helped with the Strike's ability to contact us," Natarle said, turning her attention to Mu. "It's not like we can turn back time and undo that altogether. Then there's the adult of the group, who needed to help with Lieutenant Ramius' shoulder injury, and we don't know where her husband went off to."

"So you're proposing that we should let the civvies join us in our escape?" Mu asked. "Once we leave the colony itself, we'll have to run from both the CLA _and_ the Le Creuset Team, on top of other people interested in our tech… that means we'll be involved in some pretty heavy fighting."

With a heavy sigh, Murrue said, "I'm thinking we'll have to rely on the power of our remaining G-Weapons, as well as the Orb units."

"Wait, not only are you proposing letting the civvies join our escape, but you're going to get them to fight for us too!?" Mu raised his voice, making his displeasure known.

"I know it'll be a difficult undertaking, getting them to fight for us," Murrue admitted. "However, we don't have any choice in the matter of who can pilot the weapons."

"I can't really argue with that… but it just feels wrong forcing our fight onto those kids," Mu frowned. "Even if they're the only ones who can pilot those machines…"

"Wait, what do you mean, Lieutenant La Flaga?" Natarle asked Mu in confusion. "Why don't _you_ pilot one of the G-Weapons?"

"What, are you _crazy_?!" Mu countered incredulously. "Listen, there's no way _I_ can operate any of them!"

"Have you looked at the OS for the machines, Ensign Badgiruel?" Murrue explained. "I managed to get a look at it when Kira-kun was field-reprogramming the Strike, and I can quite safely tell you that I can't make any sense of it. No Natural can."

"Exactly," Mu said. "Then there's the Magus and Witch, both of them being nearly impossible to operate without, and I quote the Magus Gundam's quasi-computer system, 'having awakened your magical potential beforehand'."

"Well, then we can't send the Magus and Witch G-Weapons out into battle, given the circumstances," Natarle answered. "Besides, we don't want to send the wrong message to HQ about this, given that we'd essentially advertise Magic being real… who'd believe us?"

"I know, right?" Mu exclaimed. "Nobody would believe us if we tell them Orb made those magical G-Weapons… speaking of which, how in the world did they end up making them anyway?"

"I wish I knew, Lieutenant La Flaga," Murrue answered. "I wish I knew…"

* * *

><p>"This should be it…" Nicol mused as he landed the Blitz on the colony wall beside the hole, which was still leaking air. "Commander Le Creuset's signal was lost around here."<p>

He activated his mobile suit's Mirage Colloid system, turning it almost invisible as the particles coated the Armor and refracted light around the unit. That done, he slowly and carefully drifted into the colony, adjusting his lateral speed to account for the colony's rotation. He could barely find any sign of the white CGUE, although the legged ship wasn't bothering to hide very well, as it was parked in… well, a park, and a wide open one at that. Making sure to stay out of sight, he scanned the area for any traces of the fallen mobile suit.

* * *

><p>Unfortunately for Nicol, however, he was spotted mere moments before the Blitz Gundam's Mirage Colloid went active by the OMNI Enforcer and by the CLA.<p>

* * *

><p>"Ma'am, we picked up Mirage Colloid particles near the ship," Jackie said to Murrue from his spot in the CIC. "The only unit that we know of that uses Mirage Colloid is the Blitz!"<p>

"Is it alone?" Murrue hurriedly responded.

"Yes, ma'am," Jackie answered. "It seems to be here on reconnaissance duty, if the Mirage Colloid's any indication."

"Probably investigating how we offed Old Mask Face," Mu thought out loud. "Captain Ramius, should we have the kids sortie and engage it? It might be possible for us to recapture the Blitz at least, since we have the numerical advantage here."

Murrue thought it over for a bit, before she nodded. "Alright," she said. "We'll hopefully see to it that we can get another pilot for that Mobile Suit in particular."

"Pity my Moebius is still being repaired," Mu sighed. "I'll go tell them to get ready. We should have some time, the Blitz doesn't seem to have realized he's busted."

* * *

><p>"Ma'am, we spotted a Mobile Suit in the area of the park," one of the recon scouts reported to Sasha. "Moments after we first saw it, though, it vanished with a burst of particles."<p>

Sasha looked at the recon scout who just reported and asked, "What's the general location of this Mobile Suit?"

"It should be over in that direction," the recon scout pointed towards the end of the park away from the new warship. "I hope that it hasn't moved around much from there."

"Right… also, now that I think about it, how can it vanish with a burst of particles?" Sasha asked out loud.

"My estimation of it is new technology coating the unit with said particles," the recon scout answered. "That might be able to explain it, especially if we can replicate said tech."

"Alright, Patricia, good work," Sasha said with a nod. "Be sure to figure out if the unit's OMNI or not, and see about contacting the pilot if they're agreeable."

"Yes, ma'am!"

* * *

><p><em>"<em>_Sir! We've picked up a _fresh _trail of residual magical energy!"_ one of the Staff pilots shouted out. _"It appears to be leading towards... the park!"_

_"__Are you positive?"_ the leader asked, before he picked up the trail, as well. _"Very well, we're headed in that direction. All forces, move out!"_

_"__Yes, sir!"_

* * *

><p>Mu La Flaga was walking over to the crew quarters being used by the pilots of the machines when he felt, for lack of a better term, something in the air. He was unsure of what that something was, but it felt wrong, compared to whenever he felt people like Rau Le Creuset (may he rot in Hell). In fact, if he didn't know better, he was sensing something similar to the earthen construct from before.<p>

"Better hurry. This just doesn't feel right…" he mused even as he came up to the door.

When he got to the door, he called out, "Hey, kiddies! You mind helping us out? I don't intend to bug you about piloting for us all that often—"

The door opened, revealing a head of silver hair that just barely reached his chin. "No problem," Fubuki greeted the seasoned pilot.

"—but we… wait, seriously?" Mu finished up, confused. "You don't want to hear me out completely?"

"Well, quite honestly, we decided there was something we needed to find out, and we can't do it if we leave the ship…" Kagami explained, with a look at those that knew how to use magic.

"The ma-magical Gundams… We need to find out who ma-made them, and why," Hanami nodded.

"Uh… seriously?" Mu asked. "You mean you wish to help us figure that out as well?"

"Don't get us wrong, Lieutenant La Flaga," Kira said. "We don't want any part of the OMNI Enforcer under normal circumstances, but these are not normal, at all."

"Yeah. For now we'll stick with you guys and take commands from you, but please understand that we don't have any love for OMNI," Kagami nodded. "We're just protecting ourselves and our friends on the ship."

With a sigh, Mu said, "Alright. You kids are our only hope of getting out of the colony and, for the time being, getting to Alliance HQ. We'll sort out the paperwork shortly after that happens."

"Um, sir," Flay spoke up. "Would I need to enlist? I mean, my father forced me to come here to avoid the conflict, given my age and how young some soldiers are…"

Mu frowned. "Actually, you would need to. How about you think of it as a slap to your father's face seeing as you don't like him that much?" he tried to lighten the mood upon seeing Flay's face falling slightly.

Flay's face lightened up, asking, "Really? What about a slap to his face and a kick to his pants?"

Mu winced and covered his man parts, an action that was shared collectively by all the males within hearing distance. "Do you really need to go that far?" he asked.

"I meant his butt, sir, not the other part," Flay answered, sighing in exasperation. "What I wouldn't give for people to understand one another without misconceptions…"

"Generally when a girl suggests a kick to the pants… well…" Mu scratched the back of his head as he tried to explain. "Guys generally have this unspoken 'man code' that says no touching that part in a fight… but girls don't seem to care about it."

Flay gasped in shock as she realized what she did wrong. "Oh no! I'm so sorry!"

"Just remember, you need to be specific about where you're going to kick the guy. If you want to kick him in the butt, then just say so," Mu pointed out, before his eyes widened. "We're getting very off topic here! Anyway, we've found the Blitz alone, it came in here for a solo recon mission. We're hoping that you might be able to help us capture it, although I'm getting a really bad feeling about this…"

"You're not the only one," Zamu said, shaking his head. "I think I know what's causing it, too, namely a massive amount of magical signatures headed this way."

"Huh?" Mu blinked, before he stared at Zamu. "Just curious here, but how did you sense it?"

"You're like us, only without the magical potential awakened," Zamu answered. "A Newtype."

Mu gasped, before his eyes narrowed. "Without the magical potential awakened? Does that mean…"

"Newtypes are hard to find at present," Zamu explained. "I thought I was the only one at first, able to sense others' thoughts, their emotions… even their deaths. However, people are more likely to become Newtypes over time, with each passing generation."

"Are there any other Newtypes here?" the seasoned pilot was almost afraid to ask.

Zamu glanced at the other pilots, who were all magical in nature. "You're looking at them, for the most part."

"All of the kids!?" Mu did a double take. "And ALL of you have awakened your magical potential?"

"I meant the other pilots, Lieutenant," Zamu said. "Not everyone else in the room."

"Oh," Mu sighed. "I suppose we can talk more about unlocking that magical potential afterwards. For now, we have more important stuff to do."

With a nod, the others started making their way towards the Mobile Suit hangar.

* * *

><p>The Blitz panned its invisible head around, scanning the local area for any sign of the destroyed white CGUE. Inside, Nicol was frowning at how long the search was taking, considering he had a much higher chance of being spotted if he lingered too long. Not to mention he was worried about his energy reserves. Without his Mirage Colloid properly calibrated, it was eating a lot more power than it should.<p>

"Come on... isn't there anything left over?" he thought out loud.

Suddenly, the Blitz almost stumbled on a hand and an assault rifle that were Mobile Suit scale—

"Ah-HAH!" Nicol declared.

The Blitz quickly made a grab for the severed Mobile Suit hand. Once it was safely within its grasp, it quickly turned around and made for the hole in the colony wall it had entered by…

_"__Attention, unidentified Mobile Suit!"_ a female voice could be heard from outside the Mobile Suit… in the complete opposite direction, to boot.

"Uh… what?" Nicol asked, incredulous.

Down below on the ground, a figure in a white combat suit was holding a loudspeaker aimed in the completely wrong direction, away from the Blitz. Nicol couldn't help himself as he smacked his forehead with his palm while holding back his laughter.

"CLA?" he asked no one in particular. "No one was supposed to have come in with me…"

_"__If you can hear this message, identify whether or not you work with the Zodiac Alliance of Freedom Treaty or any of its affiliate groups!"_ the female voice continued, unaware of Nicol's monologue.

Nicol paused in thought for a moment. _'Probably not… Might not be a good idea to get too involved with them,'_ he thought. _'Plus, they can't see me anyway.'_

It was at that moment that the Strike Gundam, equipped with the Sword Striker, arrived and shot in the general direction of the Blitz with its Igelstellungs, forcing Nicol to deactivate his Mirage Colloid armor and dodge at the same time.

"What the hell!? I'm supposed to be invisible!" Nicol shouted as he ducked behind a building to reactivate his Mirage Colloid out of sight.

Unfortunately for Nicol, the Strike Gundam didn't come alone, as the Vanguard Gundam arrived. With its Gunbarrels deployed, the second machine blasted at the Blitz Gundam from multiple directions, forcing Nicol to dodge again.

"Did the Mirage Colloid malfunction?" he wondered.

Meanwhile, the figure that was on the ground took out a camera that had enhanced video recording capabilities, recording the almost one-sided fight between the Blitz Gundam and the remaining OMNI machines. It wasn't unnoticed by the others, especially not a specific man that was looking for his wife and remaining family.

* * *

><p>"I'd appreciate it if they didn't tear the colony apart in the fighting…" a black-haired middle-aged man muttered as he rushed for the cover of a nearby building, not quite willing to stay outside and possibly end up pancaked under a stray Mobile Suit's foot. He shuddered at the thought - no way he was going to die when he still had a wife and children to take care of!<p>

Ever since this mess had started, he had planned to make sure his family was alright, so he had rushed to the Morgenroete facilities where his daughters were studying at, but then promptly saw the place become part of the collateral damage. He almost immediately went to look for his wife, but the doctor's office was deserted by the time he got there, and she was the head nurse there. He even attempted to open the door to find any sign of where his wife was, but there was a note taped on the door that said his wife was going to be busy with helping a soldier who had somehow survived the explosion of the Morgenroete factory district, which would mean taking the medical equipment to a park to help heal a shoulder injury.

He was eventually on his way to the park when he saw the combat that took place, even getting to the point in the present, where he saw the battle between the Blitz Gundam and the remaining OMNI units. He was about to look around for a safe path to get to the park when he saw someone, a woman wearing the ZAFT White Coat commando uniform, holding a camera in video recording mode.

Taking out a gun that he had been registered and licensed to use, he snuck up on the woman and, within fifteen feet of her, yelled from behind her, "_Don't_ move! Drop the camera!"

The woman froze in response. Not turning around, she capped the lens and gently lowered the camera to the ground (it was an expensive one, damn it!) and raised her hands over her head, cursing herself for dropping her guard.

"You're brave, but you don't sound like much of a soldier," the woman said, about to reach for her own handgun.

"_Halt_ your hand _now_!" the man ordered, having caught track of the slight movement.

With a gasp, the woman said softly, "He sounds just like…!"

Moving closer to the woman, the man ordered, "Now, turn around slowly, so that you don't do anything funny!"

She slowly turned around, her eyes widening in surprise as she caught sight of exactly who had been holding the gun to the back of her head. "Mr. Ya-Yamato!?"

Haruma Yamato, himself, was shocked at hearing the voice of someone he thought he'd never see again. "Sa-Sasha?!" he asked.

Just as they were about to do some form of talking with each other, however, a strange thumping sound could be heard from nearby, and it didn't sound like that of a Mobile Suit.

What appeared to be a rounded ball with arms, legs and vulcan guns mounted underneath rounded the corner. They looked like truncated Mobile Suits, essentially, but they didn't look like anything from either EA or ZAFT. Some of them had various weapons on their backs - a few guns and swords, even.

Sasha looked at Haruma and asked, "Friends of yours?"

Haruma simply shook his head at that.

_"__What the? I thought everyone should've evacuated by now!"_ a human voice boomed out from one of the odd-looking units.

"Okay, this is bad," Haruma said. "I'll have to find out your story later, Sasha, before these guys do something stupid… like killing non-combatants."

_"__Doesn't matter. We can't afford to leave any witnesses to our work., plus at least one of them is an inferior. Dispose of them,"_ what appeared to be the lead unit spoke.

Sasha picked up her camera and hurried to grab Haruma, making sure he could get out safely. "Don't worry, Mr. Yamato," she said. "I'll get you out of here, fast!" With that, she grabbed him and activated her jetpack, making sure to avoid the strange units.

"Have you seen my wife and children?" Haruma asked as they hit the rooftops. "I came out here looking for them, they said they were in the park…"

"Sorry, only just a little bit ago got there, and I didn't see anyone in there outside of a Mobile Weapon or possibly that warship, which is most likely of EA make," Sasha answered honestly.

Haruma's eyes widened. "Caridad said she was treating a soldier who survived the explosion at Morgenroete! Then she's on the…" he caught sight of the legged ship resting in the park just before they flew behind a tall building and lost sight of it.

Before Sasha could respond to that, she saw the rest of the recon scouts approach her and Haruma. "What happened, ma'am?!" one of them asked in worry. "Who's the man?"

"Haruma Yamato. He's a good friend of my parents," Sasha quickly explained, even as she took charge of the situation. "Someone get me a communicator! There are strange Mobile… Armors? Yes, Mobile Armors combing the colony for whatever reason. We'll need to call in some Mobile Suit support from the _Pascal, _the_ Verne _and the _Pisot_ to deal with them before we can leave." Even as she looked at the hole in the colony wall they had entered from, it was clear that a group of the strange units had moved to surround it to prevent anything from escaping. "If only we had the plans for the colony's maintenance shafts…"

At that moment, a female-looking Mobile Suit came out of the new warship, beginning to shoot at the Mobile Armors that had begun to attack the Mobile Suits with a beam rifle. However, the beam rifle was starting to be less useful on the foes it was being used on, especially as barriers of some sort caused the beams to partially disperse.

"Beam dispersion barriers?" Sasha muttered. "That shouldn't be possible…"

Haruma, who was at a loss for words, dumbly shook his head at the sight.

"Ma'am!" one of the scouts walked up to Sasha with a radio set and set it down on the ground before offering the headset attached to it to her.

Taking the headset, Sasha said, "This is Commander Salta speaking. Send in our GINNs at once! Get the _Verne _and the _Pisot _to launch theirs as well!"

_"__Roger that, ma'am!"_ Angie's voice came from over the radio set. _"All GINNs are getting cleared to launch at once!"_

* * *

><p><em>"<em>_Where the heck did these things come from!?" _Kagami growled as her Highwind Gundam attempted to shake off a pair of the strange Mobile Armors that were doggedly chasing it, somehow keeping up even though the Highwind was in its faster Waverider mode.

_"__Who knows, Kagami-chan?"_ Kyou asked a bit sarcastically. _"Perhaps they came from Mars?!"_

_"__They don't look like anything from the EA or ZAFT…"_ Fubuki pointed out, even as the Ariete absorbed a few shots from the odd things to almost no effect. She frowned when she noticed they were actually somewhat denting her Armor. _"Weird. These aren't physical attacks or beam weaponry… Phase Shift isn't affecting them as much as it should."_

_"__Wait, are you serious?!"_ Flay asked over the comm frequencies. _"Does that mean they have rounds that aren't solid rounds or beam weapons, or something?!"_

_"__The only units I can think of like that are… shit!"_ Zamu swore. _"We have the Council of Sorcerers involved!"_

_"__We have who involved again?" _Kagami asked out loud. _"Actually, get them offa me first!"_ she spun her linear cannons around to point backwards and unleashed a burst of cannon fire that managed to tear off one of the units' arms.

"Way ahead of you, Kagami-chan!" Kira called out, firing her unit's Igelstellungs at a few of the Mobile Armors and riddling them with holes, causing them to explode.

Hanami was being pressured by four of the odd Mobile Armors at once, forcing her to take cover behind a building even as they laid down suppressive fire while trying to flank her. She quickly leaned out and aimed her rifle, but didn't fire before returning to cover again, breathing heavily. _"Thi-This is…" _she gasped, realizing that apparently she hadn't recovered as much as she thought she had, as her finger simply refused to pull the trigger.

_"__Hanami-chan! Hang in there!"_ Kyou cried out, moving her Gunbarrels to fire on the Mobile Armors, each one taking on a different unit. With a few blasts, the units finally went down, also going up in flame.

_"__Thanks, Ky-Kyou-chan!" _Hanami called out. _"Ugh… I wo-wonder…"_ she mused as she spotted a few more units moving towards them. Jumping up to a rooftop, she ejected an attachment for her rifle out from the container on her back and slotted it on, turning her rifle into a sniper rifle as she took a crouching position to stabilize it. Gritting her teeth in concentration, she aimed for one of their legs, gripped her trigger with both hands and squeezed. Her shot flew true, sniping the leg clean off. _"I-I can do it if I a-aim for non-lethal shots!"_

_"__Guys, we need to protect the colony,"_ Zamu said over the comm frequencies. _"If the Council of Sorcerers does anything to destroy the place… many people will lose their homes, at least!"_

_"__I get that we have to minimize damage to the colony, but who are the Council of Sorcerers anyway?" _Kagami performed an flying kick that sent one of the MAs flying into one of their own, stunning them before she drew a beam saber and sliced their limbs off.

_"__The Council of Sorcerers is a shadowy group of magicals,"_ Zamu admitted, even as he fired on some of the MAs in the area. _"Nobody knows their real goal, but it's been purported that they want to rule the Earth Sphere as something of a Magocracy, where anyone with modded genetics is considered either dead or enslaved."_

_"__Eurgh, we already have enough fascists running around with the CLA and Blue Cosmos…" _Fubuki made a face, even as the Ariete _stomped _on one of the MAs just hard enough to crack the outer shell. It quickly followed it up by firing a rocket anchor at another one, pulling it towards her before she gripped it with a hand and threw it like a bowling ball into a group of them.

"Strike!" Kira called out over the comm frequencies.

_"__Oh yeah, that's the name of your Gundam,"_ Fubuki laughed, before blinking as her sensors picked up a group of people standing on the ground watching the battle. Out of the whole group, she could only recognize one person not wearing a ZAFT suit…_ "Kira-chan? You might want to see this…"_

"Huh? What are you…?" Kira asked, before her sensors picked up the people as well. It took her a slight bit, but she recognized the same person. "Otou-san!"

_"__What!? Haruma-san is he-here?"_ Hanami gasped. _"Shouldn't he be in o-one of the shelters!?"_

"I _know_!" Kira cried out. "What is he doing with a group of ZAFT soldiers?! It just doesn't make sense!"

_"__Well, we should get him out of there fast!"_ Kagami suggested as the Highwind flew to Kira's side before reverting into MS mode. _"Go! He's your father, right? I'll hold them off!"_ she stowed her rifle and drew both beam sabers.

"Right!" Kira called out, before rushing out to get her dad from ZAFT hands.

* * *

><p>"Uh, ma'am, that mobile suit is headed right for us," one of the recon scouts reported a bit dumbly.<p>

"I _know_ that, Parker!" Sasha retorted, before returning her attention to her radio. "Angie! What's _taking_ so long with the Mobile Suits?!"

_"__They've already launched! They're- WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU THINKING LAUNCHING YOUR GINNS WITH D-TYPE EQUIPMENT, CAPTAIN VALES!?"_ the reply came on radio, abruptly turning into a yell that almost deafened Sasha.

"Come again?!" Sasha questioned. "You mean to say that Captain Vales launched his ship's supply of GINNs with Weapons Configuration D?!"

"That… doesn't sound good," Haruma commented out loud.

_"__Yes, ma'am, and he's refusing to turn them back!" _Angie groaned out loud, even as the sound of her head hitting the console could be heard._ "This is going to be a nightmare…"_

"Tell me about it…" Sasha groaned herself. "Well, make sure that they don't hit anything that would make us look bad, in comparison to OMNI."

_"__I… don't think that's really possible, ma'am…"_ Angie deadpanned. _"Remember, his pilots are not known for… restraint."_

Facepalming, Sasha said, "Oh, you have _got_ to be kidding me…"

"Something tells me this is going to turn into a catastrophe," Haruma muttered.

It was at that moment that a minor strafing run happened, causing the recon scouts to evacuate the area, even as the Mobile Suit forced them to lose Haruma in the process.

"Mr. Yamato!" Sasha called out through the smoke kicked up by the gunfire and ran towards where she had lost him, only to stop and back away when she realized that the Mobile Suit had landed in their midst, and was now holding Haruma… gently?

* * *

><p>When Kira managed to retrieve her father, she was relieved that he was alright. "Otou-san, I'm here," she said over the loudspeakers for the Strike Gundam.<p>

"Kira? That's you in there?" Haruma gasped in surprise at seeing his daughter piloting a Mobile Suit.

"Yes, it's me," Kira answered over the loudspeakers.

"Where are Kyou and Caridad?" the worried father hurriedly asked.

"Okaa-san's in the warship, being the doctor to the one left to command it," Kira explained. "Kyou's in the Mobile Suit that looks like it can transform into a fighter jet with Gunbarrels."

Said fighter jet screamed past overhead as Haruma watched, its Gunbarrels streaking out to blast at a pair of the odd Mobile Armors. "Why are you two in Mobile Suits?" he shouted out over the sound of the Vanguard's engines.

"Long story short? ZAFT attacked," Kira answered.

"You have some explaining to do when we get out of this mess!" Haruma decided.

"I know, Otou-san!" Kira said, accepting the decision.

Haruma nodded, as Kira raised the Strike's hand to its cockpit and popped the hatch for her father to get in.

* * *

><p>"What's the situation?" Murrue asked Mu, who was in the Bridge at the moment.<p>

"Zamu says there's a Council of Sorcerers causing trouble in the colony," Mu frowned from his seat at the CIC. "They're not going to be able to capture the Blitz at this rate."

"How bad is this Council of Sorcerers?" Murrue asked.

"Very. They've got some Mobile Armors in the colony, and they're giving the kids a hard time. Wait..." he paused as a transmission came in. "It's Kira, she says she has her dad with her for whatever reason, and needs to bring him on board."

It took Murrue a few seconds to digest the information.

"Wait, seriously?" she asked. "Tell her to bring him on board, quickly!"

"And she managed to rescue him from a bunch of ZAFT soldiers as well," Mu reported with a stern look. "Well, shit."

Another few seconds elapsed for Murrue to digest that.

"I see…" she said, nodding at the report. "Well, we don't want to separate the parents. Make sure to let Kira-kun know to hurry as fast as possible to get back out to the battlefield."

"Got it," he turned back to his console to relay the instructions.

* * *

><p>After Kira managed to get her father out of the battlefield and onto the ship, she hurried out to the combat zone with the Sword Striker fully charged and ready to go, just in time to see a group of C-Type GINNs arrive from the hole in the colony wall.<p>

_"Kira-chan, are you seeing what I'm seeing?"_ Kagami asked over the comms.

"I hope not, Kagami-chan," Kira answered. "I'm seeing a group of C-Type GINNs headed this way, some of them even using D Equipment!"

An explosion from another part of the colony was heard, especially as a separate group of GINNs showed up from the Tannenbaum district, some of them with Heavy Missiles and others with Ion Cannons.

"Okay, it's official," Kira said. "Life hates me for some reason."

_"ZAFT and the Council of So-Sorcerers at the same time!?"_ Hanami gasped.

_"__Unfortunately, that's the case,"_ Zamu said over the frequency. _"Let's just hope that… huh? Wait, they're not fighting each other yet?"_

At that moment, the CLA units shot at the Mobile Armors, which responded in kind with what appeared to be flamethrowers attached to their guns.

_"…__never mind,"_ Zamu said, finally aware of the facts.

_"At least they're fighting each other as well..." _Fubuki sighed in relief. _"Saves us some time."_

Even as the CLA units fired on the Council of Sorcerers units, some of them managed to split off from fighting each other and started taking on the remaining OMNI Enforcer Mobile Suits. Even though it was a temporary cease-fire, the Council of Sorcerers units occasionally fired on both opposing sides of the battlefield, though most of their focus went to the CLA units.

_"__The-They don't seem to care about damaging the co-colony though!"_ Hanami pointed out, even as she had to fire her head vulcans at a missile launched from on of the GINNs, prematurely detonating it.

"We still need to kick these people out of the colony, though," Kira said. "Who knows what would happen if they ended up destroying the place? I, for one, don't want it to happen." With that, she tossed a beam boomerang at one of the enemy GINNs, which promptly dodged the initial strike.

_"__HAH! As if a stupid throwaway dagger is gonna-!"_ the GINN pilot yelled over the loudspeakers, just moments before the beam boomerang came back around and bisected him through the cockpit.

_"__Aren't there just too many of them though?"_ Kagami blinked as she watched one of the Mobile Armors jump onto the back of a GINN and stick its gun into the neck of the mobile suit and practically decapitate it. _"I don't think we'll be able to kick them out before they tear up the place…"_

_"__Oh, fer crap's sake! Get out of our colony, you bastards!"_ Kyou roared, leveling her unit's arm-mounted grenade launcher at a few Mobile Armors and GINNs, before opening fire and destroying them.

_"__I wish my rifle had a low-powered setting,"_ Fubuki grumbled as she swung her rifle at one of the Mobile Armors and punted it right out of the colony through the hole. _"Right now I can only use it as a fancy baseball bat…"_

_"__Er, didn't you have a sword mode on it?"_ Kagami asked.

The Ariete froze for a moment, before a pair of beam blades formed along the length of the barrel. _"Oh,"_ Fubuki said intelligently.

* * *

><p>When the CLA recon scouts watched as their allies and the mysterious Mobile Armors were ripped a new one by the OMNI Mobile Suits, they could only stare slack jawed, given the level of power put into the battlefield. "Ma'am…" one of the scouts spoke up. "We <em>really<em> need to report this to Chairman Zala."

"Most definitely, once we get back to the _Pascal_," Sasha muttered, watching the battle through a pair of binoculars and wincing when one of her GINNs was torn apart by beam shots from the Mobile Armors. "This is a complete mess…"

"Ma'am, we're free to get out now!" another recon scout exclaimed, pointing at the clearly unblocked hole in the colony wall.

The white-clad captain looked in the direction of the legged ship for a moment, wondering if Haruma was okay - then again, he hadn't seemed very agitated at all when the pilot called out to him, and that voice _had _sounded quite familiar… She doubted that OMNI would hurt him, what with the level of care shown when the unit took him to the ship. In the meantime though, she had other, more important priorities to worry about. "Everyone get ready to move out!" she quickly ordered.

"Ma'am!"

* * *

><p>"Okay, that was a lot easier than I thought," Nicol said to himself, even as he recorded the battle footage for the others to watch. "I certainly have to admit that they're so focused on each other, they forgot about me completely."<p>

While he was recording the battle footage for the rest of the team, Nicol still paid attention to the battlefield around him, even though he had safely made it out of the colony through the hole in the colony's wall. He was watching the effects the Mobile Suits and Mobile Armors fighting each other had on the colony interior, which was, ironically enough, where the OMNI units were doing the least amount of damage, compared to the rest.

"It could be that the OMNI units are being piloted by… citizens… of… _crap_!" Nicol shouted. "Now that I realize it, it's _very_ likely that neutral citizens are piloting the OMNI units!"

At that moment, his eyes suddenly became locked onto a particular part of the battlefield, where a Mobile Armor shot out of its guns a blast of ice and fire.

"Wait, hold up," Nicol said. "_Ice_ and _fire_?! What sort of rounds are they _using_?!"

This moment of distraction almost cost Nicol dearly, as a streak of lightning went wide and far, even grazing the Blitz while going out past it.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!" Nicol shouted, the lightning arcing around in the Blitz Gundam, before his mind went blank for the time being.

* * *

><p><em>"<em>_Captain! We've lost 75% of our total forces!"_ one of the Staff pilots reported to the lead pilot.

"Is that right? We've not even accomplished our main objective yet!" the Captain of the forces replied to his subordinate. "We need to comb the area for the magical signature, pronto!"

_"__Sir! We're still stuck in combat with the inferiors and those strange Mobile Suits!"_ another Staff pilot pointed out. _"How are we supposed to comb the area for the unregistered signatures at this rate?!"_

"_Find_ a way already!" the Captain retorted. "Those of you who are willing to volunteer, split off from the battle, while the rest of us cover you!"

_"__Yes, sir!"_ a dozen Staff pilots replied, before they split off from the battlefield.

* * *

><p><em>"<em>_The co-colony isn't going to hold much longer!"_ Hanami gasped as a stray beam from one of the GINNs' Ion Cannon struck one of the cables holding the colony walls to the main shaft. She quickly moved out of the way as the cable snapped and crashed down onto the wall, crushing a few buildings underneath it.

_"__Dammit! Whose idea was it for heavy artillery to be used inside a colony?!"_ Kyou roared out, even as she shot her beam rifle at the offending GINN.

_"__Well, the Council of Sorcerers are doing just as much damage too…"_ Fubuki pointed out as a part of the colony frozen by ice spells took a hit from a GINN's machine gun and shattered into pieces, leaving another hole in the colony wall, while a bolt of lightning arced across another GINN, causing it to mis-launch its heavy missiles into the… central… shaft… _"Shit,"_ she cursed. Fubuki did not curse often.

When the missiles collided with the central shaft, everyone that was defending the colony was stock still as the colony literally fell apart at the seams, especially as the fighting continued for a few seconds before all but two of the GINNs were destroyed. The remaining GINNs, being equipped to survive in outer space, were flown across the colony as they went back into the vacuum of space. The Staff units, however, were ill-equipped to handle anything without an atmosphere resembling Earth's, thus drifting in space as their pilots lost their oxygen, the defense mechanisms failing to work.

* * *

><p>"The colony is…!" Mir gasped as she watched the ongoing battle from the screen in the <em>Archangel<em>'s mess hall.

"Oh, no!" Caridad cried out, afraid for her daughters and her daughters' friends.

* * *

><p>"What's going on in there!?" Andreyev gasped as he watched the colony tearing itself apart.<p>

"I don't know, but it's about time we found out from Nicol," Rusty answered. "We should be hearing back from him shortly, when he returns to the _Gamow_ with proof of Commander Le Creuset's fate… though, now that you mention it…"

"Isn't he still out there?" Li Ying looked towards the screen as well, at the colony, her face wearing an expression of horror.

"Oh, shit! We need to send someone out there to rescue him!" Athrun yelled, about ready to bolt towards the hangar bay.

"Athrun, relax!" Miguel ordered. "I'm sending out Rusty to look for Nicol, as in RFN, Rusty!"

"On it!" Rusty shouted out as he ran for the hangar, not even bothering to salute in return in his haste to get his friend.

* * *

><p>Within the Strike Gundam, Kira was breathing hard, mostly from the destruction of Heliopolis getting to her. While she was generally able to handle destruction, it was not on the scale she saw it at just now, hence the hard breathing.<p>

_"__X104 Magus, X105 Strike, X107 Witch, X302 Vanguard, P07 Exodus, P08 Highwind, P09 Ariete, please respond,"_ Natarle's voice could be heard from the radio.

_'__Heliopolis… is gone… why?'_ Kira thought.

_"__Hanami-chan! Fubuki-chan! Kira-chan! Kyou-chan! Flay-chan! Zamu-kun!" _Kagami could be heard calling out on the radio in a panic, even as the Highwind in its waverider mode flew around the debris from the destroyed colony.

_"__I'm here!"_ Fubuki called out.

_"__Zamu reporting!"_ Zamu called out.

_"__I'm alright!"_ Flay reported.

_"__Ditto with Flay-chan!"_ Kyou called out.

It took Kira a moment to recompose herself, before she said over the radio, "I'm fine! Just a bit shaken up."

Hanami's reply came in quietly, _"I-I-I'm ok… I thi-think…" _she was clearly shaken up as well.

_"__Good to know,"_ Natarle said over the radio. _"Can you return to the ship now?"_

_"__Yeah…"_ Kagami said, even as the Highwind pulled up beside the Exodus, which grabbed on hesitantly. _"Fubuki-chan, you're too heavy, so get your own ride."_

_"__Oi,"_ Fubuki muttered, not quite in the mood to joke around.

Kyou pulled up beside Flay and Zamu, saying, _"C'mon, we're getting out of here. Let's get back to the ship."_

_"__A-Alright,"_ Flay replied.

_"__Yeah, that sounds like a plan,"_ Zamu said.

_"__I got you as well, Kira-chan,"_ Kagami flew to the Strike's side, even while she could be seen looking off to the side of the cockpit in the Ariete's direction, as it flew back towards the Archangel at a much slower pace.

"Thanks, Kagami-chan," Kira said, even as she put away the Strike Gundam's weapons.

* * *

><p>"Nicol, are you alright!?" Rusty called out as he approached the downed and unresponsive Blitz, drifting about in the wreckage of the colony.<p>

_"__Rusty, have you spotted Nicol's unit yet?"_ Miguel asked over the comms.

"I have, but he's not responding!" Rusty replied, transforming the Hurricane back into Mobile Suit mode and grabbing on to the Blitz. "This is the X309 Hurricane calling the X207 Blitz! Rusty to Nicol, are you alright!?"

Still no response.

_"__Great… Rusty, please get Nicol to the _Gamow_,"_ Miguel ordered. _"He'll get proper medical attention there."_

"Dammit, Nicol, don't die on us now!" Rusty growled, lugging the Blitz with him back towards the _Gamow_.

Once they made it to the _Laurasia_-class vessel, Rusty noticed that everyone among the team was already in the hangar bay, so he had less trouble waiting for them to show up. When he landed the Hurricane Gundam and put the Blitz Gundam safely on its feet, he got out of his unit, before calling out, "Everyone, we probably need medical assistance for this one! I don't want to imagine what happened to Nicol, but it needs to be done ASAP!"

"Get the hatch open!" Andreyev shouted as he floated towards the cockpit hatch together with the other members of the team.

When they made it to the hatch, every last one of them, Andreyev opened it from outside, which promptly revealed a great shock for the pilots. Each one of the pilots stared into the cockpit at the sight inside, before slowly backing off, rubbing their eyes and looking in again.

"Am I seeing things?" Andreyev blinked, rubbing his eyes yet again.

"I don't think you are, man," Dearka answered as he did the same thing.

"I need to get my eyes checked," Yzak muttered.

Li Ying was the only one relatively unaffected, as she drifted into the cockpit to check. A minute later, she drifted back out and started banging her head against the Armor of the Blitz repeatedly.

"I had too much vodka last night?" Andreyev asked hopefully.

Li Ying looked at him, shook her head and resumed banging it again.

There was a silent, pregnant pause for what felt like an hour before the pilots all shouted, "WHAT IN THE NINE LEVELS OF HELL!?" in perfect unison.

* * *

><p><strong>Xamusel: Okay, the chapter's finally done, and we're getting ready to reveal a major change in the character dynamics at the top of the next chapter. In any case, there's a good reason for the cliffhanger, namely because we don't want to spoil too much too soon.<strong>

**Now… Astral's turn to talk.**

* * *

><p><strong>AstralXYZ: Hullo! Normally I don't like reading cliffhangers, but I guess when you're writing them it's a completely different feeling. =P Just stay tuned for the next chapter if you wanna find out what happens to Nicol!<strong>

* * *

><p><strong>Xamusel: Alright, to answer another review (and, really, we need more of them):<strong>

**Mister idea (still can't write your full username on this site): Actually, Rau was overwhelmed by Newtype presences and, thus, rightly distracted at the wrong time. It doesn't mean that he was less of a big shot when he went down, it means that he should've practiced more before going out into the battlefield, expecting anything and everything.**

**Now… please enjoy the story some more.**


	5. Silent Run

**Xamusel: Well, now that this is getting past the first arc of SEED, we'll be planning the changes that occur after the Africa arc. Not only will things need to be different overall by that point, but all that needed to happen in canon by then will be getting ready to head out the door, thus allowing us to make major changes.**

**Oh, if you want to learn the answer to what happened to Nicol, please read and find out.**

**Now… please read the rest of the story for a general idea of what's gonna happen.**

* * *

><p><span>Chapter 5<span>: Silent Run

* * *

><p>Within the <em>Archangel<em>'s bridge, Mu and Murrue were talking with each other and the rest of the current bridge crew about their situation. "So? What's our next step, Captain?" Mu asked.

"Well… we didn't get to finish resupplying in time before Heliopolis…" Murrue trailed off, although everyone understood what she meant. "As it is, our supplies won't last long enough for us to reach Earth."

"Captain," Natarle spoke up. "Would it be a good idea to head to an allied base for the time being?"

Murrue considered it for a moment. "Which one do you have in mind?" she asked.

"Unfortunately, there's only one that pops to mind," Natarle answered. "It's a Eurasian base that's actually in the L3 area, though it's cringe worthy in that people don't like it for the base commander, Gerard Garcia."

"You're referring to Artemis, right? The asteroid base with the Lightwave Barrier?" Murrue asked for confirmation with a frown.

"The one and the same," Mu answered for Natarle. "I heard from a good friend of mine who was stationed there that the place was utterly complacent, and that they hadn't seen a single battle in the whole war. He requested a transfer almost immediately after he got there."

"That bad?" the captain grimaced. "Do we have any other choices?" she looked up at the screen over the main viewport of the bridge.

"Ma'am, there _is_ the REA base close to our location," Jackie Tonomura said from his spot in the CIC. "The Kongbaoshi base… unfortunately, it's on the other side of Artemis, but they have actual combat exercises for their forces there."

"Well, our supply situation is quite urgent… I'm not sure if they can last until we reach Kongbaoshi…" Murrue mused thoughtfully, studying the map as it plotted the trip to both destinations.

"How about we get some supplies at Artemis, and then head over to Kongbaoshi?" Arnold asked. Upon receiving strange looks, he elaborated, "I'm not saying we should stay at Artemis longer than absolutely necessary, just enough to refill our supplies to a third of their total capacity."

"That sounds like a good compromise," Murrue agreed. "That way we won't have to deal with Garcia any more than necessary, and we still get our supplies."

It was at that time when a radio message was heard by Natarle. "What was _that_?!" she questioned the other end of the line.

"Ensign, what's happening?" the captain looked in Natarle's direction.

"The Ariete has returned, but it appears to have brought some damaged lifeboats," Natarle answered. "I'm not entirely sure what to do in this situation…"

Murrue rubbed her temples in consternation as she thought for a moment. "Bring them in," she finally ordered. "In the end, we still need to take responsibility for the loss of the colony…"

Natarle saluted Murrue. "Very well, Captain," she said. "I guess we should check on _how_ damaged the lifeboats are."

"The extra refugees are really going to take a toll on our remaining supplies though…" Murrue went back to massaging her temples. "This is giving me a headache."

* * *

><p>Inside the <em>Gamow<em>'s medical bay, Nicol was starting to slowly wake up, the heart rate machine acting up to alert the doctor what was going on.

_'__What… what happened to me?'_ Nicol thought, ever groggily attempting to get up from the bed. _'The last thing I remember was feeling an excruciating amount of pain while in the Blitz, but… what caused it?'_

He was vaguely aware of an odd weight on his chest that seemed to stay on him no matter how he moved, and it didn't really feel like someone was pressing him down… Actually, he was still feeling some phantom pains all over him, and there was an odd itch on his back. When he reached over to scratch it, he felt long wavy hair in the way and pulled it over in front of him to check. It was definitely his own, and it was about long enough to reach his knees too!

"How long has it been since I last went to get my hair cut?" he absentmindedly muttered while sitting up.

"Ah, good, you're awake," the doctor said, alerting Nicol to her presence. "Also, for the record, you last had a haircut the week before yesterday."

"Eh? Then…" Nicol suddenly became aware of an odd sensation brushing across his chest as he moved his arm more to check. Which was odd, considering last he checked, his chest didn't even reach out that far… He looked down.

"…" he stood stock still. "Can I have a mirror?" he asked.

"Sure thing, sweetie," the doctor replied, handing Nicol a hand-mirror almost instantly, like it had been prepared beforehand.

Nicol looked in the mirror. A minute later, he dropped it without warning, although the doctor caught it before it could shatter on the ground. "This is a dream," he decided as he went back to the bed and sat down on it, ignoring the unrestrained bouncing of his new… assets on his chest. "Good night, doctor," he added as an afterthought before lying down on the bed and tucking himself back in.

***SLAP!***

"OOOOOOWWWW~!" Nicol shot up, before realizing that, no, this wasn't a dream, and, yes, this was really happening. He was now… a she.

"Before you ask, we have no idea what happened either," the doctor sighed as she pulled out a file. "What happened to you also somehow scrambled the Blitz's combat recorders, so we don't know what happened to you before you were attacked and knocked out and… well, you can see what else happened."

Nicol sat silently on the bed, awestruck and incapable of understanding how it happened, but now fully aware of the implications that this brought up. "Then… that lightning that grazed the Blitz…" she said.

The doctor quickly flipped open the file and took out a pen. "I need you to tell me everything you remember, Nicol. It may help us make some sense of your… condition, and possibly see if we can reverse it."

Nicol sighed, before she started to recount the battle that took place, leading into it with her finding the now confirmed deceased Commander Le Creuset's CGUE's right hand and assault rifle. "The last thing I remember before the lightning started arcing around me was seeing how a few of those Mobile Armors fired both ice and fire from their guns… I don't even know how the battle ended, but it must not have been pretty, what with the CLA out there," she finished.

"Ice and fire from their guns? As in… liquid nitrogen and flamethrowers?" the doctor mused thoughtfully. "They don't seem like very effective weapons to use against mobile suits…"

"No, I mean, as in actual ice and fire from bullet rounds," Nicol clarified. "I'm still not sure how it happened, but it did."

"That really sounds ridiculous… I can say I believe you, Nicol, but I don't think the higher-ups will buy it if I put that in the report…" the doctor tapped her file against her chin.

"Doctor Harrison," Nicol said. "I need to ask… what did my parents say about me being turned into a girl somehow?"

"The funny thing is, they're claiming you've been a girl since birth," she replied, with a befuddled look on her face. "And quite honestly even your documents have been changed. I'm quite confused myself as well, because I'm pretty sure I'm the only person with access to those files." With that, she opened the file and showed it to Nicol.

Nicol looked through the file as presented to her and gaped. "Nicole Janice Amalfi?!" she asked out loud. "That's been my name in their minds since birth?!"

"Apparently so," Doctor Harrison sighed. "Whatever happened to you more than turned you into a girl - it appears to have changed your very… existence into that of a girl's. Only the people on the team that are close to you remember you as a guy now, aside from me."

Nicol was silent for about a minute, reading the file, before handing it back to Doctor Harrison. "This… this is too much to take in at once, doc," she said. "Still… is there anything I need to be aware of?"

"I do still need to give you a checkup to make sure you're okay," she turned to the equipment beside her. "Now… you might want to take off that robe you're wearing. I know this is going to be… well, your first time seeing your new… body, so don't freak out, please."

Nicol blinked, before shrugging and removing her medical robe, still thinking with the mentality of a guy. "I hope this doesn't take long," she said. "I still want to be a guy for the rest of my life, but I don't mean to ask the impossible of you."

At that moment, a complication arose with the name of the rest of the Le Creuset team. When the door opened, the rest of the team's Red Coats walked in without looking at Nicol.

"I'm serious, this has got to be an elaborate prank that Nicol decided to pull on us all this time," Dearka said.

"Dearka, don't start with that on us _again_," Yzak groaned in annoyance. "How could it be possible for Nicol to fake turning into a girl?!"

"I dunno, Yzak," Rusty said. "I don't think it's possible for there to actually be a change from whatever hit Nicol's Mobile Suit, and I highly doubt Nicol could turn into a girl _that_ easily."

"Hey, anything is possible, _comrade_," Andreyev said. "It could easily be that Nicol wanted to tell us about this eventually, but things got in the way—"

"Okay, we _all_ know that Nicol would never willingly turn himself into a girl without parental consent, Andreyev," Li Ying countered in an uncharacteristic amount of words. "Whoever thought he did this willingly and behind his parents backs is in need of a better brain!"

"Uh, guys, we're here," Athrun pointed out, turning his attention to Nicol. "Now, let's just see how… he's… doing… WHAT IN THE NINE LEVELS OF _HELL_?!"

The other Red Coats looked in Nicol's direction upon hearing Athrun's declaration. The only thing to come out of the mouths of the other males was "Oh, shit!" The only thing to come out of Li Ying's mouth was simply "Nicol's easily twice my bust, now… not fair."

It took Nicol a few moments to fully process the fact that everyone was looking at her bust and other proportions, before she blushed a bright red and screamed, "EEEEEEKK! PERVERTS!" With that, she covered herself with a blanket from the bed, making sure not to trip and fall on the ground.

Everyone else was slack-jawed as they saw - and heard - Nicol act like the girl she was now. "Nicol… normally, I wouldn't ask this, but WHAT THE FLYING HELL HAPPENED?!" Yzak asked.

"I… don't honestly know how it happened, but an arc of lightning grazed the Blitz and forced me to become a girl," Nicol explained, still blushing madly. "It even undid my existence as a boy to everyone outside of the Le Creuset Team and Doctor Harrison, for some reason."

"Oh… shit," Dearka said, feeling sympathetic for the youngest team member. "Look, Nicol, if it's any consolation, we'll protect you from any sudden stalkers or fan boys, alright?"

Nicol narrowed her eyes as she looked back at Dearka, even as she slowly backed off away from him. "Dearka, coming from you…"

"He means it, Nicol," Li Ying said, with a short glance at the blonde pilot. "He won't touch a teammate."

Nicol blinked, before lowering her head and sighing. "Okay, I get it," she said. "It still doesn't mean that I've got to like it, at all."

"I can help you adjust," the Chinese pilot suggested.

"No offense, Li Ying, but I don't think Nicol should be getting eased into her new life by a tomboy," Doctor Harrison arched an eyebrow.

Said pilot sighed, but otherwise didn't look too offended. "Alright."

Nicol simply shook her head and said, "Anyway, guys, I need to get checked over by Doctor Harrison now, so, if you could please let me be for now, I'd appreciate it."

"Very well, _comrade_," Andreyev nodded, still slightly in shock at Nicol's transformation to be his usual jovial self. Well, he sort of wanted to make an off-colour comment, but that would likely get him slapped by Li Ying, so he held his tongue.

With the rest of the team nodding in agreement, everyone that wasn't staffed on the _Gamow_'s medical staff and Nicol left the room, leaving the last pilot alone with the doctor. "So…" she asked. "What's the procedure going to be?"

"The usual…" the doctor paused for a moment. "Oh yeah, it is slightly different for the women. Nicol, you might feel a little uncomfortable, but I promise you it won't take too long."

"Er… could you please address me as Nicole from now on, and pass that on to the rest of the team?" Nicole asked.

"Are you sure?" the doctor asked. "Does that mean you're accepting your change now?"

"A little, Doctor Harrison," Nicole said, before a blush appeared on her cheeks. "Actually, okay, make that I fully am. I mean, if I don't do so now, I'll be forced to accept it on the terms of a reality I'd fight to the bitter end. Please… help me accept it."

"Very well then, Nicole," the doctor nodded. "Just remember, if you ever need to talk to someone that's not a guy or a tomboy about it, know that my door is open to you anytime."

Nicole couldn't hold back the tears any further. She lunged towards Doctor Harrison and cried into her coat, tears of both sorrow and relief at the same time; sorrow because of losing everything that made her who she was initially, and relief that someone was able to talk with her about it.

"There there, Nicole… We'll get you through this somehow, I promise," the doctor caressed the recently-turned-girl's head softly.

Nicole's crying lessened as she felt the doctor gently soothe her.

* * *

><p>The group of pilots from the Archangel were idly sitting in the ship's mess hall, in various states of shock from the destruction of the colony. Hanami was practicing folding paper cranes, oddly engrossed in her work while Fubuki watched her. Kagami was swirling ice around a glass absent-mindedly, or rather what had been a chunk of ice, because it had long melted. Flay could be seen simply staring out the windows at the open space beyond, although on closer inspection her hands were still slightly shaking.<p>

Kyou was looking through her laptop for things to do on it, like play games that didn't revolve around multiplayer capabilities, while Kira was reading a book that was from Zamu's bag of holding. Only Zamu was relatively unaffected, but only because he knew more people were alive than dead, and by a larger margin.

Kagami suddenly stood up and walked over to Zamu, a small blush on her cheeks. "Zamu, I need to ask you about the Tantric Ritual," she abruptly said, not letting her raging emotions get to her.

Hanami ripped apart the paper crane she had been making by accident while she gawked at her bolder twin, while Fubuki almost immediately bashed her head on the table.

Kyou, Kira, and Flay looked at Kagami and Zamu in shock for what she just said.

Zamu, however, blinked and asked, blushing all the while, "Uh… well… what do you need to know?"

"Ha-Have you ever done it before?" Kagami actually stuttered slightly.

"Onee-chan! Is it really the time to be asking that kind of question!?" Fubuki gasped.

"It's precisely because this is the time!" Kagami countered, her voice rising, before she took a deep breath and spoke more calmly, "If… If Tantric Rituals really will give us a boost to our abilities… I don't think we should put it off for too long. I don't want to see another colony get blown up in the fighting just because we weren't strong enough to stop it!"

Zamu blinked again, before he shook his head. "No, I haven't done it before, actually," he said. "However, I know that the practitioners need to release at the same time, in order for it to work."

For some reason, most of the girls let out sighs of relief. "The-The-Then… Zamu…" Kagami looked around, noticing the effect her determination had on the girls, before turning back to Zamu. "Would it be fine if you… did it with us?" she blushed, asking on behalf of the other girls as well.

"Er… well, I don't see why not," Zamu replied. "Just, well, we need to move to a secure part of the ship that won't spy on us."

"Just like that!?" Fubuki gaped.

"Isn't this… this…" Flay trailed off, murmuring a word so quietly nobody heard it, but they got the idea anyway. "…we're talking about!? Aren't you being a bit blasé about it?"

"To be honest," Zamu answered, "I don't see a problem with this arrangement. However, I'd rather not be seen as someone with a harem, due to certain… issues I have with the premise of one… unless you _want_ to be in one with me."

The girls blinked and looked at each other.

"Well? What do the rest of you say?" Kagami asked.

As one, the girls answered, "We'll do it!"

Zamu blinked, blinked again, and blinked some more. With a gobsmacked look on his face, he asked, "Are you all positively sure about this?"

"Ye-Yeah!" Hanami nodded. "Like Kagami-chan put it, we need the ritual so we can make sure another Heliopolis doesn't happen!" she blushed as she continued, "And I wouldn't mind being with... with... Zamu..."

Kira and Kyou chuckled, before the former said, "I guess we don't need to say anything else on that subject… right?"

Kyou nodded. "I agree, onee-chan," she said.

"Yeah… me, too," Flay said.

"And we've been together for so long anyway that I can't imagine taking you alone and leaving them hanging out to dry," Kagami grinned. "I'm sure none of us can."

With a sigh of acceptance, Zamu said, "Alright… I understand. Well, time to find a room without cameras, and one that we can keep sound proofed and locked."

Kagami pointed at Hanami, who blushed and said, "Any ro-room will do, I can soundproof the wa-walls and enlarge the... the bed."

"Uh… okay, that works," Zamu said. "Well, any preference in rooms?"

"Kira-chan?" Fubuki looked to the brunette, trusting her with the choice.

Kira looked at the security camera in the room, before she went to Kyou's computer and said, "I'm gonna borrow this for a second."

"Huh? What for, onee-chan?" Kyou asked, before looking at the camera as well. "Oh, right… I see."

"Go, Kira-chan!" Kagami cheered.

"Okay, here goes," Kira said. With that, she hacked into the _Archangel_'s security system undetected and got the camera to the room they were in turned off, while also locking all the doors into the mess hall.

Fubuki blinked as she heard the doors lock. "HERE!?" she shouted in indignation.

Kira looked at Fubuki and asked, "Why not? It's harder to do it in the crew quarters, especially since we aren't crew yet… nor can we do this like that in such small spaces."

"But this is… this is the mess hall!" Fubuki gestured all around her with a blush.

Hanami hesitated for a moment before getting to work on a nearby table, turning it into a bed.

"Hanami-nee!" the younger silverette gaped.

"I actually think that turning the table into a bed isn't gonna cut it," Kyou said, before putting a finger to her chin. "Then again, it might not be a big enough bed."

Hanami pushed another table beside the bed and merged it in, creating a larger bed.

"Make the bed bigger, and we're game," Kyou said some more.

"Could use some help then…" Kagami gestured at the rest of the tables lying around, before trying to push one and finding out it was screwed in. "How the… Hanami-chan?"

Hanami reached under the table towards the screw and dissolved it.

"Oh," Kagami said dumbly.

* * *

><p>A short time later, the bed was fully created to be five tables wide, and everyone in the mess hallimpromptu bedroom was getting ready to actually do this right.

"So… who goes first?" Zamu asked, looking around the room for volunteers.

Flay stepped forward, saying, "I'll go last, actually. I need a general idea of how this is supposed to work, anyway."

Zamu nodded in understanding, before asking, "Who else?"

"Kira-chan, you could go first?" Kagami suggested, before gesturing at herself. "I can go second."

Kira blushed, before she nodded. "Alright… Kagami," she said. "I hope that, after this time, we can be more… intimate… you could say." With that, she seductively walked towards Zamu, before wrapping her arms around him in the same way and saying, "You have _no_ idea how long I've been waiting for this, Zamu." With that, she pulled him into a passionate kiss that almost immediately went with the tongue in mouth approach.

Zamu was surprised by the kiss and the forcefulness of it, but he adapted rather quickly and even moved his own tongue into Kira's mouth, fighting her tongue for dominance. When the tongue war ended, Kira moaned into the kiss herself, more aware of how wonderful what they were doing was.

Kira and Zamu broke the kiss to take each other's shirts off, Zamu revealing his well-toned body, with Kira revealing her breasts bare to the room around them. "Kira… you look amazing," Zamu said.

"Thank you… Zamu," Kira answered. With a great ease, she reached down to Zamu's pants and dropped them down with his boxers, revealing his massive erection of nine inches long and about three thick.

The other girls suddenly felt a lot warmer inside as they stared at said member. "Huge..." Kagami was shamelessly ogling it.

"Wake me up when it's my turn…" Fubuki forced herself to look away before walking to a wall and trying to knock herself out by bashing her head against it. Trying being the point, because she realized it was futile soon afterwards.

Zamu, in the meantime, dropped Kira's miniskirt and her panties out from under her, thus making her as naked as the day she was born. "You really look amazing," Zamu said.

"So do you," the brunette licked her lips, her eyes fixed on Zamu's throbbing cock.

With a sudden movement, Zamu lifted Kira off the ground and placed her on the bed, lining up his dick with her pussy. Before he did anything with it, he first started massaging her breasts, giving her some pleasure and foreplay.

Hanami blushed at the sound of Kira's pleasured moaning, even as she stopped her own trembling hand from creeping up towards her own breasts. "I wa-want that…" she whispered.

"You'll get your turn, Hanami-chan," Kagami grinned as she started taking mental notes.

Zamu noted that Kira's pussy was getting moist from the ministrations he was giving her, so he moved his hands to her pussy to grant entrance to his cock, while also making sure to get onto the bed as well. Taking it slow and steady, he placed it inside of her, slowly pushing in until he reached her hymen.

Kira, who was feeling pleasure build up within her, felt it stop when Zamu's cock made it to her hymen and stop outside. "What do you think you're doing?" Kira asked. "Don't worry about it and jam it in!"

Shrugging, Zamu moved his cock back, before ramming it through the inner wall and tearing down her proof of virginity.

Kira cringed at the intrusion, before blinking in surprise when she found the pain suddenly disappearing. She looked at Kagami, whose hands were glowing slightly. "Just so it doesn't hurt. You'll probably still be walking slightly funny afterwards though," the silverette smiled.

"Thanks-ooh, Kagami-aah!" Kira said through moans of pleasure that she was going through.

Kagami paused for a moment, thinking before she turned around and cast the same spell on the rest of the girls. "I'm probably going to be knocked out after my turn to do it later," she confessed, before turning back to watching the pair going at it. "Dammit, this is torture waiting for my turn!" she groaned, even as she rubbed her thighs together in anticipation.

"What, you mean you don't want to wait for your turn, Kagami?" Kyou asked. "If you want to double-team Zamu with onee-chan, go ahead. Nothing's stopping you."

"Umm… I…" Kagami was actually taken aback slightly at Kyou's statement, before she looked between Zamu and Kira. She sighed, before shaking her head and looping her arm in Hanami's, causing her to squeak in surprise. "Nah, I'll wait. Besides, I think it'd be interesting to see how he handles both of us twins at once."

"Okay, suit yourself," Kyou said, shrugging at that. "I think I'll go with double-teaming him with onee-chan myself." With that, she stripped her clothes and rushed towards Zamu and Kira, intent on joining the fun.

"That's quite daring of her," Kagami whistled, before looking at Fubuki. "What about Fubuki-chan?"

"Umm…" Fubuki had long stopped bashing her head against the wall, although she was now sporting a spectacular blush even as she watched the action going on. "I… I think I'll go before Flay-chan…"

"Umm… Fubuki," Flay spoke up, even as she was watching the Yamato sisters go at it with Zamu with a major blush on her face. "I… wonder what you taste like."

"Eeeeeep!?" Fubuki jumped backwards from Flay a good distance, while she gaped at the redhead incredulously. "I-I-I don't swing that way!" she hurriedly said.

"Oh? Funny you should say that," Flay answered, stalking seductively towards Fubuki with a saucy smile on her face. "I swing more for men than girls, but I don't think I've had feelings for a woman like you before."

"EEEH!?" Fubuki backed away from the advancing Flay in fear, until she found herself up against a wall, unable to escape any further.

Flay walked over to Fubuki and stopped when she was within arm's distance away. "I truly love you, Fubuki," Flay said, before holding onto her and giving her a passionate kiss.

The younger silverette completely tensed up, as her brain attempted to process what was happening to her. Fortunately she still had enough sense of mind to rein in her empathy, but even without that she could feel that Flay wasn't lying. Fubuki just simply didn't know how to respond.

Flay moved her tongue into Fubuki's mouth, getting the right of passage to do so while Fubuki was unable to respond, and started caressing the inside of the silverette's mouth with her tongue. While she did so, she placed her arms around Fubuki, helping pleasure up the girl with her breasts being massaged.

A low squeak escaped Fubuki's throat when she realized that Flay was actually squashing her breasts against her own, but she realized that the redhead was actually stronger than she looked when she tried to escape and found herself being held tightly. "Fl-Mmmph!" she barely managed to get half a word out before she found her mouth too occupied to continue.

Flay, for her part, was feeling even more turned on than before. Even as she massaged Fubuki's breasts, she unconsciously tapped into her magic to get Fubuki to drop their clothes on her own.

"Ee-eeh!?" Fubuki gasped out when she found her body moving on its own, shedding her own clothes as well as Flay's, leaving them pressed against each other without a shred of cloth on either of them and exposing their nude bodies in their full glory. The warmth of Flay's similarly sized breasts pressing against hers left the former feeling a lot hotter inside than she had any right being. "Wa-wai-mmmph!"

Flay was slightly surprised to see Fubuki's inverted nipples, but didn't really care, even as she moved Fubuki's hands to massage her breasts. While she was doing this, Flay thought, _'If only I could easily help Fubuki into the mentality I have.'_ Even so, she prepared to help finger Fubuki, to let her know what it was like for the real deal.

The silverette was more than a little shocked when she found her hands resting on Flay's breasts. In her confusion, she ended up clenching her hands a little tighter than she meant to, causing Flay to gasp in surprise and snapping her out of her funk. "Fla-Flay-chan, I…" Fubuki whispered in an attempt to get the redhead off her, but all coherent thought was lost when a pair of fingers plunged into her nether depths.

"G-Good going, Fubuki," Flay said, encouraging the silverette. "Embrace your inner passion, and don't let go. Be free with your emotions." Even as she said so, she continued to pump her fingers into Fubuki, slowly going up to three fingers over time.

"Gaa-aah!" Fubuki whimpered at the action, while she felt her mind slipping away and her core getting hotter and hotter. Slowly, she released a hand from Flay's breasts, lowering it before whispering, "So-Sorry, aaa-AAAH! Flay-chan…" and responding in kind as she pressed her lips against the redhead's again, while gently massaging the soft orb of flesh in her other hand.

Flay mentally cheered as she realized she started converting her love to her mindset. Even so, she moaned into the kiss that she received from Fubuki, as well as the other ministrations that the silverette was doing. Then she let out an involuntary shudder when she realized exactly what her love was doing with the hand that had been lowered earlier. "Fu-Fubuki, keep it… ah!" she yelped as the other girl rubbed her hand against her clit.

In the meantime, Kira and Kyou had started to give each other passionate kisses, in spite of their familial bond. While they were both being pleasured by Zamu, with Kira getting pounded and Kyou getting her pussy eaten out, they were looking at each other rather lustily in the process of this ritual.

"Ohoo, it's getting really hot in there…" Kagami laughed, before casting a look in Fubuki's direction and blinking. "Oh my, Fubuki-chan too?"

Hanami didn't respond.

When Kagami turned to look at Hanami, she raised an eyebrow when she found her blue-eyed twin panting slightly, while one of her hands had disappeared up her own skirt, and there was a small wet patch on the ground under her. "Even Hanami-chan's more impatient than I am?" she palmed her own face. "And I thought I was supposed to be the impatient one."

With Flay and Fubuki, the two of them were about ready for an initial climax of their own, getting themselves ready for when Zamu would make them his. Even with Flay doing her best to convert Fubuki to a bisexual mindset that leaned towards men, the process was slow going, given the amount of time getting her used to this.

Fubuki, although apparently having gotten through her initial reluctance, was still slightly hesitating as she rubbed her finger around Flay's entrance, every now and then ghosting over her clit slowly and causing her to shiver. The silverette herself was panting quite hard from Flay's own ministrations, even as she sucked in a deep breath when the redhead's fingers thrust into her once more.

"Th-That does it, Fubuki," Flay said in a gentle tone. "Do-Don't let hesitation weigh you down now. You still need to be ready for when you can safely say you swing both ways and prove it." Even as she said it, she felt a major amount of pleasure from Fubuki's ministrations, even feeling the finger around her entrance come towards her. "Do-Don't worry about how I feel… just do it already."

Fubuki, already completely lost in her haze by now, leaned over to gently nibble on Flay's collarbone while she pulled her hand back slightly before copying the redhead and thrusting three fingers into her lower entrance, eliciting a loud gasp in response. Her other hand had started playing with one of her partner's erect nipples, brushing across it ever so softly and managing to tease a sharp intake of breath from her.

"Ahn, Fubuki!" Flay gasped out in pleasure, her very being filled with more pleasure than she had imagined before. Her eyes rolled into the back of her head, her tongue was out of her mouth even as she drooled from the amount of pleasure she was getting, and there was nothing to stop it for the time being.

"Fla-Flay…" Fubuki ground out, thrusting faster in and out of Flay with her fingers, noticing the redhead doing the same to her.

"Fu-Fubuki…!" Flay grunted out, feeling a climax about to come.

"I'm…" the silverette gasped, feeling it too and subconsciously tapping into her empathy to make sure they did it at the exact same time. "I'm cu-cumming!"

At that moment, both girls screamed into the air and drenched their hands and the floor with their inner fluids, both of them riding on an orgasmic high.

"Aaaand there they go," Kagami remarked, before smartly rapping Hanami on the back of her head. "They're almost done anyway," the red-eyed twin gestured towards the Yamato siblings and Zamu.

Indeed, Kyou was just about ready to release at the same time Zamu was inside of her, even as she ate out of Kira's pussy. With the Yamato sisters about to release, Zamu continued to pound into Kyou, getting ready to do his part for her.

"I… I'm close!" Kyou warned, feeling her impending release.

"M-Me too!" Kira groaned, barely managing to hold hers in as she remembered the terms of the ritual.

"O… okay! Here it _comes_!" Zamu roared out his orgasm at the same time the Yamato sisters went through what they considered Heaven.

Kira and Kyou gasped out as their love juices spilled out onto each other and all over the bed, fortunately Hanami had thought to make it impervious to liquids since explaining a soggy table to the rest of the crew would be… awkward to say the least. The two sisters moaned slightly as they rolled over, panting hard.

"That… that felt a lot… more… pleasurable than I… was led to… believe…" Kira muttered just before passing out.

"Yeah… it was… onee-chan…" Kyou muttered, before she, too, passed out.

"Wow, he knocked you girls out in one shot?" Kagami blinked, before shedding her own clothes beside the bed to reveal her massive I-cup breasts and very much womanly proportions.. "I definitely need to get in on this…" she licked her lips while pulling Hanami along as she sashayed towards Zamu with an exaggerated sway to her hips..

"Ka-Kagami-chan!" Hanami struggled for a moment before pulling off her own clothes, leaving her in the same state of dress as her twin and also showing off the same perks of her family genes that Kagami shared. Her lower entrance was already quite moist from her earlier fingering too.

Zamu eyed the twins and asked, "Hanami, could you please get Kagami ready while you get a turn?"

"Eh?" Hanami blinked in confusion.

"I mean ready for her turn," Zamu elaborated. "Your entrance is moist as is, and Kagami needs some… prep work, so to speak."

"B-But I…" Hanami looked at Kagami hesitantly, who just rolled her eyes and pushed her onto the bed before climbing on as well and pressing the less confident twin's hands against her breasts, shivering slightly at the contact but otherwise maintaining her saucy smile.

"That's right, you two," Zamu said, nodding with approval. "Now, keep at it, Hanami, while you get your turn." With that, he got up and moved over to the twins, getting his still hard cock ready for entering Hanami's pussy.

"Eeeehh…" Hanami froze at the sight of the 9" long cock begging for entrance, causing Kagami to roll her eyes again before capturing her twin's mouth in a short kiss. "Mmmph!? Ka-Kaga-AAHN!" she gasped when not-so-little Zamu began to press against her soft folds.

"Don't worry, Hanami," Zamu said. "I'm sure you need this, too, all things considered." With that, he entered Hanami's folds and pierced through, going past the hymen in one go.

The blue-eyed silverette tensed up, preparing for the pain only to sigh in relief when she realized that Kagami's spell was still in effect. Half a second later, she let out a loud squeak when the massive cock hit the back of her uterus, causing her to clench her hands involuntarily and making Kagami moan out when her fingers sank into her twin's soft orbs.

"That's better…" Kagami grinned, before Zamu started thrusting, causing Hanami to repeat the action over and over. With a loud gasp, she turned to Zamu. "You know.. aaah… there's more room he-here for another pair of… hands…" she panted, lighting up at the prospect of finally putting her training to use.

Zamu was confused by what she had meant, but shrugged as he reached towards Kagami's breasts, squeezing on them as well.

"Aahn~" Kagami let out an exaggerated moan that nonetheless just helped arouse the other two more. She relished in the warmth coming from both her sister's and Zamu's hands, even as they massaged her twin orbs. "That's it…" she breathed huskily when she felt the all-too-familiar sensation of heat filling her breasts.

"Okay, what is it you wanted us to do that for?" Zamu asked, curiosity getting the better of him.

"It's a su-surprise… ahh!" Kagami shivered at the continued massage, even as the pressure built inside her. In response, she reached for her twin sister's breasts as well, and started teasing her nipples with her fingers agonizingly slowly, eliciting another loud squeak from the blue-eyed silverette.

Zamu was more than happy to wait for the surprise, especially since it was for his first ever tantric ritual, which was done especially with the women he had come to love. With that, he continued massaging Kagami's breasts, helping her get to the right state of body.

"It's… it's coming…" Kagami whispered, feeling the pressure in her breasts build to a level she had never felt before.

"Kaga-Kagami-chan…" Hanami was close as well. Knowing that, Kagami stopped teasing her nipples and just plain started squeezing her breasts instead.

Zamu was feeling the buildup for his orgasm about to burst, so he prepared to squeeze Kagami and insert what he could inside of Hanami, as soon as possible.

"Aaaaah!" Hanami whimpered when she couldn't hold it in anymore and let her own orgasm loose. "Za-Zamu!" she called out her lover's name as she did.

"Hanami!" Zamu called out, even as he released inside of her. With the simultaneous releases thus far, the girls should be getting all the more better from this. Then again, he felt a bit exhausted, so he checked himself. "Wait… I'm spent?" he asked incredulously.

Kagami had to push Hanami off Zamu, as the blue-eyed silverette had fainted almost immediately after releasing. She looked at now-little Zamu with a smirk on her face. "We can't have that now, can we?" she grinned as she lowered her breasts over his crotch, suddenly making the sole man in the group aware of exactly what was dripping from her breasts.

"Breast milk?" Zamu asked curiously.

"Yep. When I started looking into Enchantment magic, I noticed it was a popular medium for a lot of the spells, so I trained myself with a breast pump the first chance I had," Kagami smirked, even as she looked towards her twin sister who was also dripping slightly. "Hanami-chan got into it after a while too. But enough talk, let's get started on fixing your little problem here…" she punctuated that by sandwiching little Zamu between her massive breasts, even while she tucked her hair behind an ear slowly and her mouth descended on it.

While Zamu looked on, he felt that his cock was becoming erect again, especially with the feeling that it might grow further… wait, what?

"Mmmph!" Kagami quickly realized she had almost literally bitten on a bit more than she could chew when Zamu's cock surged to a larger size than it had been earlier, causing her to choke when it hit the back of her throat unexpectedly. She hurriedly let go and started coughing, trying to recover from her blunder. "Uh, I think I _sliiiightly_ overdid it?" she rubbed the back of her head sheepishly.

Laughing it off, Zamu said, "Well, at least it works right, anyway." Looking at Kagami, he grabbed her gently and lifted her pussy over his cock, before lowering her over him as slowly as possible.

"Unlike Hanami-chan, I don't mind if you're a little rougher," Kagami grinned as she leaned in and kissed Zamu passionately on the lips, while wrapping her arms around him.

Taking the kiss in stride, Zamu lifted Kagami up as high as he could without leaving her pussy, and then dropped her all the way down to let their hips connect.

A sharp intake of breath came from Kagami when the tip of Zamu's cock rammed straight through her hymen and hit the back of her uterus. Her eyes watered slightly in pain, although it was soon overtaken by the waves of pleasure when he pulled it back without leaving her, and thrusted in again.

"This... is the... best!" the silverette screamed out between thrusts and the sound of their wet hips smacking against each other.

Zamu just grunted out his approval from the whole thing, before he felt his climax start to approach. "Ka… Kagami!" he shouted. "I'm… close!"

"M-Me too!" Kagami shouted back, also feeling herself closing in.

About as soon as the two of them shouted, there was a feeling of great lust in the air, especially since Flay and Fubuki were about to finish round two between them.

"Almost... there..." Fubuki groaned, still trapped in her haze even as she pumped her fingers in and out of Flay.

"Yeah… me… too…" Flay groaned out as well, even as she nibbled on Fubuki's collarbone some more.

"Aa… aaaah!" the twintailed silverette couldn't hold back anymore and released, her love juices drenching Flay's hand again, while the redhead did the same to hers.

"Cumming!" Kagami shouted at virtually the same time.

With a wordless roar, Zamu released into Kagami at the same time she came, their love juices mixing together.

Kagami slumped onto Zamu, completely tired out as she squashed her breasts against his chest. "That was… awesome…" she whispered breathlessly. "I guess… it really is enough… to… knock you out… in one shot…" she passed out, still impaled on Zamu's erect cock.

Zamu gently got Kagami off of him, even as Flay and Fubuki were getting close to going at it again, and turned his attention to them. "So… you two wish to go at it together? Or separate?"

"Together!" Fubuki replied.

Zamu shrugged, before he gestured for them both to come over to the bed. When they did so, he gently grabbed Fubuki and lifted her up. "Gentle or rough?" he asked.

"Um... " Fubuki nervously rubbed her dripping wet thighs together. "Gentle," she whispered after a moment of thought.

"Alright," Zamu said with a nod, before gently lowering her onto his cock. While he held her nice and steady, he also felt her grab onto him, for the benefit of her own pace.

Fubuki tensed up for a moment when she felt Zamu's cock hit her hymen, despite her knowing that her older sister's spell was still in effect. Deciding that she'd trust her sister entirely, she gave the man a nod and braced herself as she snuggled her head in the crook of his neck.

With a safe thrust, Zamu penetrated past the hymen, hitting Fubuki's cervix in one go.

Fubuki jerked slightly when she felt the penetration, but sighed in relief when she didn't feel any pain. "So warm…" she muttered as she hugged Zamu tightly.

"I'm glad you approve," Zamu whispered to her, even as he thrust in and out of her. "I hope you enjoy this as much as the others."

"I'm sure I… wi-eep!" she squeaked when Zamu thrusted a little too hard and hit the back of her uterus with his whole length. "I-I-I'm fine!" she hurriedly said.

"Are you sure?" he asked, caring for her well-being. When he saw her nod, he shrugged and went back to thrusting, making sure to avoid that blunder again.

Fubuki moaned in pleasure as she herself began to buck her hips, which did interesting things to her breasts - which Zamu realized, apparently had a similar thing going on with her older sisters. "Aah!" she tried to cover it up awkwardly with an arm when she realized he was looking.

In the meantime, Flay had gone behind Fubuki and started to give her a massage on her stiff muscles, helping her get ready for a bigger orgasm. This didn't mean that she was staying with the muscles, however, as she also massaged Fubuki's breasts as well.

Zamu, for his part, opened his mouth and moved towards Fubuki's breasts and began sucking on them to see what breast milk tasted like.

"Ahn~" Fubuki moaned, almost losing it right then and there as Zamu's hot tongue came into contact with her sensitive areolae. She was just about starting to wish that she had normal nipples like everyone else when she let out an involuntary gasp as Zamu started to lick the droplets off her skin.

Flay continued massaging Fubuki while also starting to feel the lust in the air turn her on. She was doing her best to stay even a little sane and in control of her own actions, but it was getting tantalizingly difficult to do so.

Zamu, for his part, was working overtime to get the orgasms timed together. Even as he did so, he felt a large buildup on his end, so he screamed, "Ahn! I'm… gonna… cum!"

"I can't hold back anymore either!" Fubuki's condition was pretty much indicated by the rate at which she was leaking milk and her trembling muscles struggling to hold back her own release.

As one, they released, with Zamu letting loose a full amount into Fubuki's womb and then some, with the remainder dripping out of her lower entrance when he lifted her off him.

"So… full…" Fubuki whispered as she passed out on the bed beside her sisters.

Zamu turned to Flay and asked, "How would you like it? Gentle or rough?"

"How about… something in between?" Flay ventured, feeling a bit more adventurous.

"Up to you, really," Zamu answered. With that, he gestured her to come to him, before she did something he wasn't expecting.

Namely, she literally jumped him, landing on his cock and penetrating her hymen in one go.

"Oww!" Flay sharply winced when she found that she had greatly underestimated the length of his cock.. "You might be a bit too big to do that safely…"

"Er…" Zamu said as intelligently as possible. "How are you handling the girth of it?" He settled on asking, even as he helped her up to a decent position.

"No problem with it so far," Flay nodded, adjusting herself slightly before beaming at Zamu. "You're a _lot_ bigger than I expected most guys to be…"

"Thank Kagami for enhancing that part," Zamu answered, before he started thrusting into her. "Please… be honest about… this."

"I will… Aaaahn!" Flay whimpered as the male's massive cock started rhythmically sliding in and out of her vagina, rubbing the still-warm love juices from the other girls and himself on her already-wet inner walls. "This is so much better than… doing it yourself!" she declared.

Zamu nodded, even as he pushed her onto the bed while still in her, so that he was now on top. "That's something we can agree on," he said, before giving her a passionate kiss.

Flay returned the kiss with renewed vigor, as she reached out and hugged him, pressing her considerable assets against his damp, muscular chest. "Make me yours, Zamu…" she murmured huskily after their lips separated.

"Will do, Flay," Zamu replied. With that, he thrusted in and out again, only with a steadily increasing tempo.

"Aaaah!" Flay shouted in pleasure as the pace increased, even while she began reciprocating the action by bucking her hips back and forth in sync. She was already lost in the haze of pleasure as well, only breaking out of it when she caught the familiar tensing of her lower body. "A-almost…" she ground out between her teeth.

"Y-yeah…" Zamu answered. "Let's… cum… together…"

"R-Right!" Flay faltered slightly, but managed to pick up the pace again as her soft breasts bounced hypnotically on her chest with the force behind each of Zamu's thrusts. Her breath came in loud gulps of air, as she hadn't quite recovered from her session with Fubuki yet.

With a guttural roar, Zamu released inside of Flay, just as she released her juices from her pussy. Their combined juices splashed out across the bed and over each other, leaving them smelling quite heavily of sex like the rest of the girls.

"Aaaaah…" Flay moaned in pleasure as she relaxed and rolled out from under Zamu, lying spread-eagled on the large bed. "An A-Adonis indeed…" she whispered before passing out as well.

Zamu was about ready to follow suit and get rested, before he heard a noise from the other side of the doors. _'Wait, I thought the room was sound-proofed?'_ he thought, before his eyes widened significantly.

"What in the world is going on in there?" a familiar voice belonging to a certain blonde Moebius Zero pilot floated through the door.

"Uh… well, there was a problem we needed to fix in here, and it took a large amount of effort to fix," Zamu said, technically not lying.

"A problem? It sounded like you were going at it like rabbits in there!" the reply came, punctuated by some banging on the door.

"It's… rather complicated, Lieutenant La Flaga," Zamu added. "But, please, don't open the door!"

"I get that you have hormones and all, but this is the damned mess hall!" Mu shouted. "Open the door!"

Before Zamu could choose to comply or not, two things happened at almost exactly the same time. First, there was a burst of magical energy that only Zamu could feel coming from the girls and himself. Second, the lock on the door was undone, even as Mu was about to bang on it one more time. "Uh-oh…" Zamu said in regards to the door.

"So… what's going on… here…" Mu trailed off when he looked in, blinking in surprise.

As far as what Zamu was feeling, he was shivering in fear of his impending doom, even as he mentally chanted, _'Please don't notice, please don't notice, PLEASE DON'T NOTICE!'_

"Eh? I could've sworn I heard things going on in here…" a very confused blonde pilot muttered as he turned around and walked away. "Am I going senile or something? I can't be… right?" Zamu heard him say as he turned around a corner.

"Eh? Going senile?" Zamu asked himself as he turned around to look back. "I could've sworn he caught us in… our… act… huh?"

Behind him, what had been a huge bed had turned back into a few tables and chairs back in their original positions, while the smell of sex had all but vacated the room. The girls themselves were apparently sitting on the chairs and resting on one table in various positions, with their clothes back on themselves, although on closer inspection, Zamu could see that the girls had… changed, for lack of a better word.

Looking on himself, he noticed that he was clothed again, only his clothes didn't fit right any further… which, upon thinking about it, he realized was actually how the ritual was supposed to go. Breathing a sigh of relief, he said, "Well… this works wonders."

* * *

><p>"Athrun Zala, reporting as requested."<p>

"Come on in, Athrun," Miguel replied from inside Rau Le Creuset's old room.

Athrun stepped into the room as the door opened, smiling at the sight of the blonde-haired pilot sitting in the seat of the deceased commander that he had to admit, he respected but didn't entirely like for some reason he couldn't quite explain. "Acting Commander, what did you need me for?" he asked professionally.

"Nothing much, Athrun," Miguel answered. "Just wondered about your view on who could possibly be piloting the remaining Earth Forces Mobile Suits." Before Athrun could speak up, Miguel continued, "I know you were there… could you please elaborate on this?"

Athrun tensed up, an action not quite missed by the ZAFT ace pilot, who narrowed his eyes slightly. "Acting Commander, I suspect the pilot of the Strike was…" he took a deep breath, trying to keep his personal feelings out of the equation. "... my best friend from Copernicus, Ya… Kira Yamato. She's a… Coordinator."

"Oh? A Coordinator in the Earth Forces?" Miguel asked, before shaking his head. "I don't mean to make you fight her, given the nature of your friendship. If anything, try and convince her to defect, so that we can keep from hurting your friendship."

"I don't think she's fighting for the EA, Miguel," Athrun relaxed slightly. "She was in civilian clothing when I saw her, so it's more likely that she was simply caught up in the fighting. I just have no idea why she was there holding a katana…" he shook his head as he recalled the specifics of the scene in question.

Miguel blinked in surprise, before he flatly said, "What?"

"Not only that, there was at least one archer spotted at the scene sniping our men off with arrows, as crazy as it sounds," Athrun said. "The only person I know who even has an interest in archery at her age is one of Kira's… friends…" his eyes widened in realization. "Wait… it can't be… but… silver hair? Three sisters? It's just a coincidence, right…?" he whispered, more for his own benefit than anything.

"Athrun, don't rule anything out," Miguel said. "I'm just trying to get the truth found out. Please… consider it."

The blue-haired commando took another deep breath before continuing on, "It's… possible that Hanami, Kagami and Fubuki Yukikaze, three of Kira's other best friends, are piloting three of the other machines. If so… then her younger sister, Kyou Yamato would likely be there too…" he concluded, not quite willing to believe in what he was saying either. "The Yukikaze sisters are Coordinators, and Kyou is an Enhanced Natural."

Miguel let off a hmm to himself as he thought back on his reading of Le Creuset's files. "If I recall correctly, she's technically an Enhanced Natural with modded genes after birth, Kyou Yamato," he said. "I have to thank the deceased Commander for the discovery of his connection to that incident."

"Wait, what?" Athrun did a double take.

"Yes, I was surprised, too," Miguel answered, even as he handed Athrun a copy of the report. "You might want to share this with the others. I took the liberty of forwarding this to Supreme Council Chairman Clyne, so that he could put two and two together, as well."

Athrun felt his respect for the deceased Commander drop another notch. "He… supported human experimentation!?" he growled after a few seconds of scanning through the report.

"It seems that he was actually after the goal of mutual destruction between us and the Naturals," Miguel replied. "Human experimentation was one of his ways of doing just that. It seemed his endgame was to have GENESIS, whatever that is, fired on the Earth and destroying humanity with Gamma radiation."

The blue-haired commando slumped slightly at the news, his respect for his damned and deceased Commander completely shattered. "Don't tell anyone I said this, but I think the bastard dying was a good move by Kira and her friends," Athrun muttered.

"Glad we're in agreement, Athrun," Miguel said with a nod of approval. "Now… you said they're not with the EA, but you never said their affiliation. Are they Orb citizens?"

"Yes, they are," Athrun confirmed, dipping his head slightly in the barest of nods. "All of them are from Orb, but I don't think they actually know what they're getting themselves into here." He tightened a fist in frustration as he continued, "I wish they didn't have to get involved."

"I know, Athrun," Miguel said in sympathy. "If I had my way, I'd be done with the war when I had the money to support my brother's treatment for his illness." He sighed, before continuing, "Well, whatever you do, don't let the CLA get their hands on your friends. I think that, for their services to humanity, I'll make them unofficial members of ZAFT that are free to operate against us when we try something against them. Just my way of flipping the bird to the head of the CLA."

Athrun actually chuckled at the thought of Kira and her friends wearing ZAFT medals on their lapels and giving the finger to the leader of the CLA at the same time, although he caught himself before the smile on Miguel's face could develop into a smirk. "I admit, that sounds like a nice thing to do for them," he smiled.

"Yeah, that's the truth," Miguel said, before he walked over to the door. "C'mon, want to plan a way to get back at the head of the CLA for making their lives hell? I think it'd be appropriate to… recruit, you could say, soldiers that would work with us but are not us."

"Sounds like a plan," Athrun nodded as he turned to join Miguel. "I'll see if I can get in touch with some of my more trustworthy Academy friends."

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, in his office in Aprilius 1, Patrick Zala gave a mighty sneeze while sitting at his desk and doing paperwork for the CLA, effectively ruining said paperwork, while leaving the rest of his work untouched.<p>

"GODDAMN IT!"

* * *

><p>While on their way to Artemis, the crew of the <em>Archangel<em> were doing their level headed best to stay calm, until one of the crew on the bridge reported, "Large heat source detected, indicating a warship engine! Distance, 200! Yellow 33-17! Mk 02! Charlie, course 0 shift 0!"

Mu, who was on the bridge, questioned, "_Beside_ us?! But it's headed in the same direction!"

Murrue questioned, "Are they onto us?!"

Natarle added her two bits, "They're a fair distance!"

"Object outpacing us! Identified as a _Nazca_-class vessel!" the bridge operator continued.

"Tch!" Mu gritted his teeth from his seat in the bridge. "They're trying to get in front of us to stop us in our tracks!"

"Where's the _Laurasia_-class?" Natarle turned to the radar operator, who was busy typing away at his station,

"Hold on a moment…" he replied. "There's a heat source following us, 300 to stern!" Turning to face his superiors, he asked, "When'd that appear?"

"If this keeps up, the _Laurasia_-class will eventually catch up to us," Mu thought out loud. "But if we fire up our engines and try to escape, the _Nazca_-class will find us instantly." He was silent for several moments before he ordered, "Hey, bring up data on the two ships and a map of space over here."

"Do you have a plan?" Natarle asked. "I mean, given the amount of firepower we have…"

Mu turned around to face Natarle and said smoothly, "Who the hell do you think I am? I'm getting ready to think about it now, and I promise, I'll make the impossible possible!"

* * *

><p><em>"<em>_Enemy unit, silhouette detected. Level one battle stations! All military personnel get to your positions at once! Repeat…"_

"Is the ship really going to go into battle with us on board?" Kuzzey asked nervously.

"It seems like it, Kuzzey," Tolle answered. "Hopefully we'll be alright overall."

_"__Mobile Suit pilots to the bridge! Mobile Suit pilots to the bridge!"_

"Oh no, Kira and the others!" Mir exclaimed out loud.

"They've decided to fight already, right?" Sai frowned. "I hope they'll be alright…"

"Listen, Tolle," Mir said, looking to her boyfriend. "Kira-chan and her friends and sister are all fighting for us, while we're on the sidelines."

Tolle, looking down, said, "If you have the power to make a difference, put it to good use… at least, that's what I'd imagine the senior officer would say, right?" With that, he looked up at Sai and Kuzzey, hoping they came to a good decision.

Sai and Kuzzey looked right back, wearing determined expressions on their faces as they nodded.

* * *

><p>"Hey, girls, wake up!" Zamu yelled for the sleeping beauties to awaken.<p>

"Mugyuu…" Hanami shifted to one side in her chair in her sleep groggily, somehow managing to unbalance herself off the chair…

***CRASH***

"Ow!" Kagami woke up with a start when a hard forehead crashed into her shoulder. "Dammit Hanami!" she cursed at the sleeping blue-eyed twin that was blinking blearily as she looked up at her from the ground.

"Uhn… what time is it?" Kira asked from her seat as she woke up.

"It's only been an hour and a half since the ritual ended," Zamu explained. "You girls were out of it worse than I thought."

"Then that means we really did… it…" Kagami blushed, before she took another good look at Zamu and did a double take. "Wait a second, you look… different. And I mean in a really good way!" her blush intensified slightly as she took in the much improved pack of muscles on his front.

"Save it for after this is over with, girls," Zamu instructed. "ZAFT's attacking!"

Fubuki jolted awake and practically jumped out of her chair at the news. "ZAFT's… attacking!?" she shouted, before she suddenly became aware of a ripping sound originating from her front. Blinking in surprise, she looked down and realized that her shirt and pants had ripped off her, and she was now showing off a lot… more… than she had originally… intended… "EHHH!?" she gasped out loud as she quickly covered her modesty with her arms.

Kira finished waking up instantly, before she looked at Fubuki and the rest of them, even herself. "Uh… why do we look older?" she asked as intelligently as possible.

Kagami blinked before looking herself down. Now that she thought about it, everything else did look a bit shorter… and… she put her hands under her breasts and gave them an experimental lift, noting their size and weight. "Am I dreaming?" she asked no one in particular. "No, wait, I already got hit by Hanami just now."

Hanami herself was blushing slightly as she tried to tug her shirt up, since her increased bust size had stretched the neckline down further than she was used to. "Um… Sorry, Kagami…" she whispered sheepishly.

Flay, who had been silent until that moment because of her own clothes ripping on her, gasped as she noticed something. "Hanami! Your stutter!"

Hanami blinked in surprise as she tried speaking, "Really? Wait, it really _is_ gone!"

Kyou looked up from her own new three sizes that were bare for the rest to see and asked, "How are we gonna get new clothes?" Noticing Kagami, she said, "Oi! You're flashing us!"

"Huh?" Kagami looked down and realized exactly what Kyou was talking about. "Jealou… no wait, I can't use that one on you anymore," she grumbled when she realized that Kyou was almost the same size as her now. "Well, the jacket was already a little undersized to begin with… and speak for yourself! At least I'm not flashing my pussy!"

"Eh?" Kyou moved her breasts out of the way to look down better and saw what Kagami was talking about. "ACK!"

"Okay, girls, enough!" Zamu shouted. After seeing them calm down, he continued, "It seems we all went through the end result of the ritual supercharging us, even giving us enhanced bodies overall. Now… want to kick ZAFT out of the area?"

"Oh sure, I wanna do that, but I don't wanna be in my birthday suit while doing it!" Fubuki pointed out, still covering her modesty.

"Huh… good point," Zamu said, remembering that tidbit. "Well, time to fix that issue, girls. I'll get some cloth and have Hanami transmute it to decent clothing." Reaching into his coat, he pulled out another Bag of Holding and opened it up, pulling out a bunch of cloth for Hanami to use.

"Well, mine are feeling tight too…" Hanami rubbed her thighs together shyly as she accepted the cloth and got to work. "I might have to use some of the leftover material for ours too," she looked at a sheepish-looking Kagami and Kira.

"Eh… well, why not?" Kira asked. "Probably for the better, at least."

With that, Hanami nodded and began to gather up what shreds she could recover from Kyou's, Fubuki's and Flay's damaged wardrobes to use as well. Blinking slightly when she realized that her magic was coming to her much more easily now, she quickly created copies of their older clothes in their current sizes, as well as moving to Kira and Kagami to adjust theirs as well, before doing hers last.

"Well… we need to get going, then," Zamu said. "I was waking you up to inform you of what was going on outside. We've been called to the bridge."

"Then we really need to hurry!" Hanami nodded, doing some final adjustments to Kagami's clothing since she was in the most danger of unintentionally flashing people. _'Kagami, you're way too shameless…'_ she thought to herself.

"I heard that, Hanami," Kagami grumbled.

Hanami blinked. "I didn't say that out loud, did I?" she said.

"I heard it, too," Kira said. "However, it sounded like a voice in my head, not a voice through my ears."

"Then…" Hanami looked at Kira, and thought,_ 'Kagami is a pervert, isn't she?'_

_'__Preaching to the choir, Hanami,'_ the others, sans Kagami, responded. Kagami just grumbled.

"Okay, that was interesting," Zamu said. "However… we need to hurry!"

"Right!" the girls nodded.

* * *

><p>After a little bit to travel out of the mess hall, Kira and company found themselves going through the corridors of the <em>Archangel<em>, headed for the bridge when—

***CRASH!***

"Ouch!" a familiar male voice could be heard.

—they ran into their friends from Kato's class. Literally.

"Shouldn't that be our line?" Fubuki muttered as she tried to get up, only to freeze when she realized there was someone's head squashed into her bosom.

"Mmff!" Kuzzey was heard, even as he was slowly losing oxygen.

"S-Sorry!" she quickly pulled the head out, not realizing who it was until she blinked and saw Kuzzey's face. "Kuzzey! Are you alright?"

"Uh… yeah, miss, I'm… wait, how do you know who I am?" Kuzzey confirmed, before asking the question.

"Eh…" Fubuki blinked again. "You really don't recognize me?" she asked incredulously.

"First we've seen you people," Tolle answered. "Unless, of course, you guys are just aged up versions of our friends, which is just plain ridiculous," he added as a joke.

Fubuki shuffled nervously in place, worried about their reaction.

"Wait… it's true?!" Tolle yelled incredulously. "Seriously, how did you guys age up that fast?"

"Umm… Sai-san, could you, you know, get your hands off my breasts?" Flay whispered, trying to shift out from under Sai, who had ended up on top of her in the crash.

"Eh? Oh… whoops," Sai said, before he got off of Flay. "Well, not sure how you pulled that off, but I think you'll score a nice guy that way."

Coughing into his hand, Zamu said, "She's taken."

"Really!?" Sai did a double take before walking off to a corner and squatting down with an aura of doom around him. "Flay's taken…" he muttered, even as he drew circles on the ground in his depression.

"At least the other girls can't be taken, right?" Tolle asked out loud, prompting Mir to punch him in the arm.

All of the aged-up women shared a simultaneous look at Zamu.

"Wait, what?!" Tolle cried out in shock. "How'd you _do_ it?!"

Kuzzey started copying Sai, who had gone back into his funk.

"Well… he's so big, and so warm…" Kagami said dreamily, even as some of the other girls turned to the side to hide their blushes at what they had caught the red-eyed silverette imagining.

Mir was the only other one to catch the hidden meaning of the words, as she simply stared incredulously. "Okay, Uraki-san, you need to do a size comparison with Tolle here," she said in a tone that brooked no arguments.

"Oi, isn't he buff enough already!? There's no way I'd win in a size contest anyway!" Tolle yelped, completely missing the point.

With a glare from Mir, Tolle shut up, long enough for her to whisper into his ear, "Comparing the mini Tolle with the mini or not-so-mini Uraki-san, I meant."

Tolle froze in shock, before he slowly backed off. "I… I think I'd rather not," he said sheepishly, trying not to look at Zamu's crotch.

"Eh, not worth it on someone who's younger," Zamu said. "Anyway, we'll be headed to the bridge now, unless we have instructions on what to do?"

"Oh yeah, we were just headed over there too!" Sai snapped out of the funk he had reentered, leaving Kuzzey alone in the corner he had just left. "We can't let you guys do all the fighting while we sit back and watch."

"Yeah, that's true," Mir said, grabbing Tolle before he could wander off to join Kuzzey in the emo corner. "Well, we're all in this together. We plan on helping out, too. Any way we can."

"But it's pretty dangerous, guys…" Fubuki said.

"We'll handle it," Sai said, pulling Kuzzey out of the emo corner and getting him ready to get to the bridge. "In the meantime, you'll need to fight to protect us, right?"

"Well, we'll definitely try our best to," Hanami nodded, surprising the students with the absence of her usual stutter.

"Alright, kids, that's enough," the officer who was behind the students said. "Time to get to work in the bridge." With that, he pushed them towards their destination, before he stopped himself to say, "Oh, you guys need pilot suits for sure, especially if you're launching again."

"I think the big question we're all asking here is do you have any our size?" Fubuki asked after a quick look at the others.

"Oh, well, they were designed to be one size fits all… among the men, at least," the officer said, realizing his blunder. "Unfortunately, we don't know how to fix the issue now, but we'll work on it."

"So… you want us to sortie in uncomfortably tight pilot suits," Kagami raised an eyebrow.

"Actually, no, but it's better to find a pilot suit that can fit," the officer answered. "Unfortunately… you'll need to go in your current clothes, at least for now."

"At least our current clothes won't limit our movement," Hanami reasoned. "But after the battle, can you find us some spare ones? I'll be able to do something about the pilot suits."

"Sure, I don't see why not," the officer answered. "Oh, for the record, I'm Chandra Dalida the second. Nice to meet you." With that, he took off to the bridge again.

"Zamu, what do you think of skintight pilot suits?" Hanami smiled as she sashayed over to Zamu in an innocent manner, clasping her arms behind her back and leaning forward just enough for the man to see into her bosom.

"Uh… I think I'll take one after this fight's over," he said.

"What about us wearing them?" Fubuki inquired, mirroring her sister's faux-innocent pose, even as Kagami added fuel to the fire by imagining all the girls in said pilot suits crowding around Zamu.

"Okay, what do you want, me to die from blood loss?" Zamu asked in an annoyed manner. "Still, I don't see a problem with that, though… ah, forget EA regulations, girls. Have them."

"Kagami has corrupted Hanami," Flay whispered to Kyou.

"Nah, we all corrupted each other," Kyou whispered back as she shook her head.

"I heard that!" Kagami pouted. "But I'm not complaining."

* * *

><p>"So that's it, Acting Commander," Ades said to Miguel.<p>

"Well… seems the Umbrella of Artemis is active," Miguel said. "It seems they knew we were coming with enough warning."

"A so-called impenetrable defense, huh?" Andreyev muttered as he looked at the shielded asteroid base through the viewports in disdain. "What use is it on a fortress with no strategic value?"

"They're about to _get_ some strategic value, Andreyev," Rusty countered. "We're chasing a top secret At-Fed project here, we should at least kick the project out before they can fully stay in here."

"Rusty's right," Athrun said. "Besides, there's always an Achilles' heel for everything. The same is true for Artemis."

"Between the bunch of mobile suits we stole from EA, I'm sure we have something that can make it work," Miguel shrugged. "It's just… I'm worried about Nicole."

"We all are, sir," Ades said. "We don't know how to reverse what happened to her, nor do we have anyone that believes us about this, or a way to comfort her except with the doctor on the _Gamow_. Do you think she'll be willing to pilot the Blitz again?"

"She's not the kind of person to let her personal feelings get in the way of the mission," Athrun nodded, being one of Nicole's best friends and thus knowing her the best. "She'll pilot… I still can't get used to calling Nicole a her though."

"Yeah, Athrun," Miguel said. "We want Nicol back."

"We all do, _tovarisch_," Andreyev laid a burly hand on Miguel's shoulder, nodding his agreement. "We all do."

"Thanks, Andreyev," Miguel said, nodding his head. It was then when a thought hit him. "Wait… where's Li Ying?"

"Sharpening her daggers in the hangar _again_," Andreyev grumbled. "That girl has issues."

"Ah," Miguel said, shaking his head. "Well, since we've cut off the new warship, we'll have to go into battle with it. Be prepared for anything."

"Roger that!" Athrun, Andreyev, Rusty and Ades saluted.

"Helmsman, turn the ship 180 degrees. Match velocity to Artemis and proceed astern!" Ades followed up the salute with his orders, as the Vesalius pivoted to face the way it came using its RCS thrusters, before firing its main engines to slow it down, drifting in reverse with its rear facing the asteroid base.

* * *

><p>Within the <em>Archangel<em>'s pilot ready room, Kira and company were waiting for Mu to get in there with his pilot suit on—

"Well… huh? No pilot suits?"

—when he announced his presence while checking on the pilots' safety.

"Unfortunately there just isn't anything our size for now," Hanami pointed out.

"So we don't really have a choice but to head out like this," Kagami shrugged, following on after her twin.

"I see… wait a second!" Mu blinked as he looked at the other pilots, before doing a double take. "I'm pretty sure you lot weren't 21 years old the last time I saw you!"

"Magic," Zamu simply said. "It's a long story."

"I'm getting too old for this," Mu grumbled, trying his best to look professional even after a glare from Fubuki, who had once again covered her bum with her hands told him she still hadn't forgotten what she had seen in his head. Some of the other women were even giggling for some odd reason he didn't know! Not that he wanted to find out.

"So, care to explain if you have a strategy in mind for our benefit in the battle?" Zamu asked.

"Actually, yes I do," Mu grinned, gesturing at the screen in front of the room where a map of the battlefield was being projected. "We managed to load some special equipment for the Gundams, as you call them, onto the ship before we left Heliopolis. Our plan will rely on using that equipment to launch a surprise attack on the enemy ships around us, focusing on disabling their engines. After that's done, we'll pull back everyone and make a break for the safety of Artemis."

"Okay, so, what about the units that don't have the special equipment needed for this surprise attack?" Kira asked.

"Only the Exodus and Highwind can use the equipment, so the rest of you will be defending the Archangel from the enemy mobile suit force. My Moebius Zero is stealthy enough, so I'll be attacking the _Nazca_-class to our front with the Highwind. The Exodus will deal with the _Laurasia_-class to our rear."

Kira and the others nodded in understanding at that.

"Now, I believe I don't really need to say this, but we can't afford to let the Archangel get disabled, or else we'll be stuck here and likely captured by ZAFT. Neither can we afford to lose any mobile suits - everyone is vital to the success of this operation, got it? If needed, the Vanguard as the fastest mobile suit aside from the Highwind will be on hand to help out the units attacking the enemy ships. Kyou, be alert for any orders coming from the CIC to assist them."

"Roger that, Lieutenant La Flaga," Kyou answered.

"Any other instructions, sir?" Hanami asked.

"Yeah, for you to think only of protecting this ship and yourselves," Mu answered.

* * *

><p>By the time the pilots were ready, the Moebius Zero was ready to deploy first. <em>"Moebius Zero, La Flaga to the linear catapult!"<em> Natarle's voice could be heard over the PA system.

Within his Mobile Armor, once it got into position, Mu set the visor on his helmet and called out, "Mu La Flaga, _launching_!" Speaking more to himself, he added, "Don't let them get you before I return, kids, or not-so kids anymore." With that, he launched in his Zero from the _Archangel_.

_"__Well, we are technically still young in mind… even if we look older,"_ Kagami pointed out. _"Well then, old man, don't get yourself shot down! Yukikaze Kagami, Highwind Gundam, taking off!"_

The black and red form of the Highwind tore down the catapult deck in its waverider mode, while the large radome acting as its left wing started releasing Mirage Colloid particles to cloak itself, causing it to vanish into thin air.

_"__Kagami, be nice to Mu-san…"_ Hanami forced a smile before her expression turned determined as she gripped her controls tightly._ "Yukikaze Hanami, Exodus Gundam, running silent!"_

Similarly, the silver and blue Exodus launched from the catapult and turned around in the other direction, heading towards the Laurasia-class to their rear. After a while, its backpack started to release Mirage Colloid particles as well, and the Mobile Suit disappeared into thin air.

* * *

><p>"<em>Laurasia<em>-class closing in, 50 to stern!" the sensor operator called out.

"Fire main engines in two minutes," Murrue ordered from her seat in the bridge. "Strike and Vanguard, prepare for launch _now_!"

* * *

><p><em>"<em>_Strike and Vanguard, proceed to launch position!"_ another bridge officer's voice was heard from the PA, even as both Gundams were dropped onto the launch pads. _"Catapult connection! Systems all green!"_

Even as Kira and Kyou were getting ready to launch for the first time in outer space, they were open for a welcome surprise, as Miriallia opened a comm channel to them both. _"Kira! Kyou!"_

"Mir-chan?" Kira asked.

_"__From this point on, I will act as the combat operator for the Mobile Suits and Mobile Armor on board. I'm counting on you guys!"_ Miriallia said with a playful wink.

_"__We're _all_ counting on you guys!"_ Sai interjected.

Outside the Strike Gundam itself, a combat pack was placed onto the Mobile Suit itself, giving it a backpack with wings, a shield, and a rifle similar to the gun that the Vanguard Gundam was going out with, only less powerful, supposedly. _"Mount the Aile Striker onto the Strike,"_ Natarle could be heard saying over the radio in the meantime. _"The enemy will appear when the _Archangel_ fires its engines. Be ready!"_

"Right," Kira said.

* * *

><p>Outside the warship itself, the Lohengrin assault cannons opened up from within the legs of the ship, getting ready to fire anti-matter blasts at the ship in front.<p>

As the main engines fired up, the cannons unleashed a beam of energy towards the _Nazca_-class vessel ahead of the warship, vaporizing the asteroids and various debris in the way, but completely missing its target as it immediately dove to the side the moment the beam was detected.

* * *

><p>"Heat source detected, assuming from enemy warship!" a bridge member on the <em>Gamow<em> reported.

Captain Jeff Zelman, upon processing the information, ordered, "Have the Mobile Suit team launch on the double!"

* * *

><p>"So it's time, huh?" Nicole fiddled idly with her new pilot suit, feeling distinctly uncomfortable with the tighter fit around her chest and hips.<p>

_"__Nicole, I know you don't want to fight for any ill reason,"_ Yzak said over the comm channels. _"However, we don't have much choice, given the fact that we don't want the enemy warship to get into allied territory."_

"I know we don't have a choice here, it's just… I've got a bad feeling about Artemis," the verdette frowned as she looked in the rough direction of the asteroid base, not quite sure what she was feeling either.

_"__Nicole, you have a bad feeling about Artemis?"_ Dearka asked her. _"What sort of bad feeling, if you don't mind my asking?"_

"I don't even know how, but I just feel something… ominous from it," Nicole tried to explain. "I… suppose we can worry about it later."

_"__Hey, not to worry,"_ the Gamow's last Greencoat assigned to a Mobile Suit, Matthew Sims, said. _"We'll be able to find something to help catch the defenses off-guard, and then you can see what the feeling actually is."_

"I have a sneaking sensation that it might be too late by then," Nicole sighed, as the Blitz was moved to the catapult. "Nicole Amalfi, Blitz, launching!"

* * *

><p>"Okay, Athrun, I know we talked about this," Miguel said from the bridge of the <em>Vesalius<em>. "I need you to stick with the plan, and even mock fight the enemy Mobile Suits, unless they shoot to kill."

_"__Got it, Acting Commander,"_ Athrun nodded from the cockpit of the Aegis._ "And… thank you for understanding. Athrun Zala, Aegis, launching!"_

Miguel saw Athrun take off from the _Vesalius_, before he said to the other pilots, "Don't let the others interfere with Athrun's assignment. Also, if need be, I'll launch as well."

_"__Affirmative, Acting Commander. Huang Li Ying, Maul, sortieing," _Li Ying reported in, as the close-combat oriented Mobile Suit could be seen leaving the catapult.

_"__I'm just happy to help a comrade out!"_ the jovial Russian of the team reported in._ "Andreyev Danilovich, Slingshot, launching!"_

_"__This will be a good day for all of us when Athrun finally gets his feelings sorted out,"_ Rusty commented. _"Rusty Mackenzie, Hurricane, ikimasu!"_

Even as Rusty launched, Miguel asked nobody in particular, "Ikimasu?"

* * *

><p>"<em>Nazca<em>-class vessel has launched four Mobile Suits," Chandra reported.

"Captain!" Natarle called out from her seat in the CIC.

"By all means," Murrue confirmed.

"Have Kira and Kyou Yamato launch from the ship immediately!" Natarle ordered. "Followed by Zamu Uraki and Flay Allster, and then Fubuki Yukikaze!"

"Kira, Kyou!" Mir called out on the radio.

* * *

><p>"Okay, then," Kira said, her eyes hardening for whatever could happen next. Even as the catapult opened up, she flexed her grip on her controls to show that she was starting to get nervous. <em>'At the moment, we're the only ones who can protect this ship,'<em> Mu's words could be heard from earlier. With that, she lowered her head, closing her eyes in the process.

Flashing back to earlier, in the corridor of the _Archangel_, Kira remembered, _'Well, we're all in this together. We plan to help out, too.'_

Snapping her eyes open, Kira noticed the launch preparations were completed, as she called out, "Yamato Kira, Strike Gundam, IKIMASU!" With that, she launched from the _Archangel_ and towards the future battlefield.

* * *

><p>Within the Vanguard Gundam, Kyou noticed her launch prep was also completed, so she called out, "Yamato Kyou, Vanguard Gundam, HERE I GO!" She also launched towards the battlefield, aiming to defeat her foes, no matter how it had to be done.<p>

* * *

><p><strong>Xamusel: Well… another one bites the dust, so they say. Believe me, this chapter was considerably annoying to write out, what with the fact that Astral and I were stuck trying to figure out how to write this since the day the previous chapter was finished, and our living on opposing time zones is part of it.<strong>

**Anyway… Astral's turn to leave a note for the readers.**

* * *

><p><strong>AstralXYZ: Personally I thought the issue was more with the conflicting time zones than anything, but it's just that we were trying to figure out this chapter and the idea for another story at the same time. So anyway, for the reviewer that managed to guess what we did to Nicol right, you get a cookie! And now you see why this story is M-rated too.<strong>

* * *

><p><strong>Xamusel: Okay, before I forget, the review corner.<strong>

**Takeshi Yamato: Yeah, this needs to be addressed, namely what happens when the Yamato parents find out what their daughters did to look like 21 year olds. It won't be for a while, mind you, but it'll be addressed.**

**Also… I can't believe we plum forgot to include Sasha in this chapter! That sucks. I guess we'll have to work her into the next chapter.**

**Yeah, the Council of Sorcerers is a big group of bad guys, honestly. In fact, you saw one of them pester Flay earlier, but under a fake name and appearance.**

**ariados26: For both of your reviews here… well, first off, you raise a good point about Gilbert. I think we need to put him into play sooner or later. Second, like Astral said, you get a cookie!**

**Well… later, everyone!**


	6. Sword of the Arcane

**Xamusel: Well, now that this is getting to the first official battle between the Le Creuset team and the Archangel crew, things will really start heating up. As it stands, the next chapter is going to be where we really diverge more from canon, and even extend how long we get until we finally get the heroes to rescue Lacus Clyne.**

**No, they don't know this in advance, nor do they know she's there in the Debris Belt to begin with.**

**Oh, one bit of advice: Have Full Frontal's theme on hand for when the CLA show up again, given the nature of one of the pilots. You'll see soon enough.**

**Well… on with it!**

* * *

><p><span>Chapter 6<span>: Sword of the Arcane

* * *

><p>The Duel, Buster, Blitz and Matthew's GINN raced towards the <em>Archangel<em>, ironically missing the Exodus Gundam as it traveled by—

"Huh? Did something pass us by?" Nicole asked, after turning on the Blitz's Phase Shift Armor.

"_I didn't see anything on the sensors,"_ Dearka reported. "_And this thing has some of the best long-range ones."_

"I hope that's the case," Nicole said, even as she couldn't help but shake the feeling that things would go wrong for the _Gamow_.

"_I don't think any of their units can use Mirage Colloid like yours, right?"_ Dearka mused. "_I mean, there's no data in the computers about them being able to use it…"_

"It's less that the G-Weapons aren't known to have it and more that the people who made the other units left it as an unknown on their end," Nicole explained.

"_Well, we do have a job to do, so let's get moving!"_ Yzak barked.

With a sigh, Nicole said, "Yes, mom."

"_I heard that!"_ Yzak shouted.

"Good."

* * *

><p>"Four heat sources approaching from stern, distance 67," Chandra reported. "They're Mobile Suits, ma'am."<p>

Murrue narrowed her eyes and said, "Here they come."

Natarle barked out, "Commence preparations now for anti-Mobile Suit combat! Load Korinthos into missile tubes 13-24 and prepare Valiant linear cannons! Input target data, _hurry_!"

"Machines ID'd," Chandra reported. "But these are… one's a GINN, while the others are X numbers, matching Duel, Buster and Blitz!"

Natarle looked at him like he was going crazy, demanding, "What was that?!"

"They're already sending the stolen machines back out into battle?" Murrue grimaced as she looked at the radar screen showing the vectors of the approaching Mobile Suits.

"I wouldn't put it past ZAFT to use the remaining Mobile suits they stole against you," a female voice was heard from the entrance to the bridge, causing everyone who could to look at the person.

Murrue whirled around in her chair to face the source of the voice, gasping when she realized exactly who it was. "Ca-Cagalli-sama!?"

Cagalli nodded curtly, before saying, "I was there when it happened. You need to look out for the rest of your former machines as much as possible, especially so you don't get blindsided in the future, people."

The captain sighed, feeling an impending headache. "Well, at least we still have the Exodus series and the Strike, since we can adapt them to any role we need," she mused. "Still it would be nice to deny ZAFT the use of our machines…"

"All of them, you mean, right?" Cagalli asked to clarify.

"Of course," Murrue nodded as she turned back towards the screen showing the positions of the defending Mobile Suits and the mission timer. "Recapturing them would be the obvious best choice, but given the odds, that might be a little hard. After all, you need a difference in combat strength of at least 3 times to make a successful capture…"

"That might be the case of conventional warfare, Captain Ramius," Cagalli said. "However, this isn't conventional warfare, nor did they account for the human factor."

The captain turned around in her seat to face Cagalli. "What exactly do you mean?" Murrue tilted her head to one side curiously.

"To quote Sun Tzu, 'All warfare is based on deception'," Cagalli explained, before turning her attention to the screen. "This applies to Mobile Suit combat. Nobody knows the true measure of how a Mobile Suit force can operate, unless they've used Mobile Suits for longer than they've been alive, so that would be one of the key examples of said art of war."

"I can understand that," Murrue agreed. "It's all up to the kids, huh…"

"Er, ma'am," Tolle said from his seat, turning to look at Murrue. "They don't qualify as kids any longer, given the growth spurt they went through before getting in their Mobile Suits."

"Huh?" Murrue blinked in confusion. "Exactly what do you mean by that? They can't have gone through an entire growth spurt within a day…"

"Well, they did," Kuzzey said from his seat behind the sensor operator, Romero Pal. "I think they did something along the lines of what Zamu showed us earlier, to prove his point to Lieutenant La Flaga about Magic."

"…I'm getting too old for this stuff," the captain complained as she massaged her temples.

"You're not the only one," the rest of the enlisted bridge crew said in unison.

"Hmm, I wonder if you'll be as big as them in the future, Mir?" Tolle looked at his girlfriend from his seat beside Arnold Neumann, the pilot.

Blushing madly, Mir was about to reply when Arnold interjected for her. "Could you two save it for after the battle, please?"

"_If it's any consolation, Mir-chan, you still have time to grow!"_ Fubuki's voice hurriedly came over the radio.

Mir blinked for a bit, before saying, "Thanks, Fubuki-chan. I'll see what happens later on, alright?" With that, the radio conversation ended, because Mir turned off the radio on her end.

Cagalli had what could only be described as a constipated look on her face. "Goddamn it, now I'm feeling left behind," she grumbled.

"I hope you don't expect them to share their secrets," Natarle said from the CIC. "Fact is, it could be genetic… which would make a perfect amount of sense, given they share a similar trait on their genetic profile."

"After the battle!" Arnold hurriedly interrupted before the conversation could escalate any further.

Natarle blushed a bit, before shaking her head. "Right, sorry," she said.

* * *

><p>Athrun was flying the Aegis Gundam in Mobile Suit mode when his sensors picked up three Mobile Suits heading out from in front of the enemy warship and towards his position. "I hope that Kira's piloting one of them," he said to himself.<p>

* * *

><p>Kira looked at her monitor on the Strike Gundam as she picked up four Mobile Suits on the approach. "I hope that Athrun's not in one of those machines… I don't want to fight him," she said.<p>

"_Kira, we may not have a choice,"_ Flay said, worried for her friend and fellow harem sister - god, it sent shivers down her spine thinking about it. "_If it makes you feel any better, we can try to disable them."_

"Okay, I'll see how the situation plays out," Kira said. "If, for whatever reason, it's not Athrun… do we shoot to kill in that case?"

'_Umm, I think killing his friends would make it even worse for us,' _Hanami pointed out telepathically, having been listening in over their mental link since she had to maintain radio silence.

'_Right,'_ Kira replied.

'_Hanami does have a point. Just aim for legs, arms, anything that looks like a weapon and stuff like that,'_ Kagami added. '_In any case, we're almost at the Nazca-class now. Hanami?'_

'_Likewise. It feels weird, drifting past enemies without them seeing me. Although…'_ Hanami paused for a moment, as if she was trying to think of what to say. '_I kind of felt an odd presence when the enemies from the Laurasia-class flew past me.'_

'_An odd presence?'_ Kira blinked.

'_Like a jolt of electricity passing through your mind?' _Zamu guessed.

The blue-eyed silverette was silent for a few moments, before she confirmed, '_Something like that, yes.'_

'_Even more reason not to kill them then… that's usually a sign that there's another Newtype in the vicinity,'_ came the reply from the man.

Kyou was the first one to speak over the connection after a few seconds, '_What happens when a Newtype is found by any group of magicals? I mean, supposing that the Newtype is aware of their magic.'_

'_Fortunately, the Council of Magi have records of Newtypes existing, and even actively work to help them awaken their potential upon finding them,'_ Zamu answered. '_If the Newtype in question is already aware, then they get their magical signature registered by us. The Council of Sorcerers, however, are an unknown in if they know about it or not. Actually, if they knew, they probably have a Newtype in their group.'_

Before any further conversation could be had, a voice could be heard coming from open comm channels. "_Kira! Kira Yamato!"_

Kira gasped in surprise, hearing Athrun's voice come from the battlefield.

"_So it _is _you piloting the Strike!"_ Athrun confirmed. "_I'm in the Aegis right now, and I have a message for you from our Acting Commander!"_

"What are you… doing… wait, what?!" Kira asked the latter part incredulously.

"_Exactly! He wanted me to tell you and your friends that you're now unofficial ZAFT members, with proper jurisdiction to fight us under the context of us doing something against you guys!"_ Athrun paused for a moment, before he asked, "_By the way, why do you sound like you had a sudden growth spurt?"_

Kira sighed, before turning on the vidcomm and saying, "Because I did."

Athrun blinked at seeing his friend, before asking, "_How did you grow that much? I don't think it's normal for a woman to be that developed that fast."_

"Er… it's complicated, Athrun," Kira answered.

"_Try me. I have a friend who was supposed to be a guy for all his life, but something happened and he became a girl, with no record of being a guy to begin with,"_ Athrun pointed out. "_The team needs to know how to undo the mess, but there's no way we can do it on our own!"_

Kira and the others were silent for a minute.

"WHAT IN THE NINE LEVELS OF _HELL_?!" they roared as one.

* * *

><p>"<em>Athrun and the others have already taken off from the Vesalius! Don't fall behind!" <em>Yzak shouted over the radio.

"_Heh! Like I would!"_ Dearka retorted.

"Guys, this will come to bite us later, you realize," Nicole pointed out.

"_Whaddya mean? We can't let the others get to the legged ship before we get a piece of it now,"_ Dearka asked.

"I'm checking the area, and the others haven't gotten to the… wait, why'd you call it a 'legged' ship?" Nicole asked at the end.

"_It looks like it has legs, doesn't it?" _the blonde pilot answered, even as he brought up a picture of said ship on his cockpit screens..

"Point," Nicole answered. "Anyway, the others aren't even close to the warship, and it looks like the defenders are covering both sides."

"_We can deal with the defenders!"_ Yzak shouted, even as the Duel raced ahead of the others.

Before they could even get close to the ship, however, three huge beams of energy lanced out from the ship's direction, narrowly missing the three stolen Mobile Suits and the GINN.

"_Whoa!"_ Matthew cried out, even as he almost fired off his heavy missiles by accident, just by almost being hit by the beams.

"Matthew, why did you come equipped with Weapons Configuration D?" Nicole asked over the comms.

"_That stuff is useless for anti-Mobile Suit combat…"_ Dearka helpfully pointed out.

"_I was going to use it on the warship, head back to the Gamow when I run out of missiles, and come back with standard GINN equipment,"_ Matthew replied. "_Why? Is the fact that I came to sink a warship a bad thing?"_

"_You're not going to get to sink a warship if your missiles get shot down - hell, if you get shot down before you reach it!"_ Yzak growled.

"_I'll be going in close enough to just be within firing range, then I'll open fire,"_ Matthew answered calmly. "_Besides, I'm not going to stand still and fire all ten of my missiles in one spot, I intend to move about and away from their weapons."_

"_What you learn in the Academy and what you get to do in real life are completely different, rookie!"_ Yzak groaned, recognizing the signs of a typical overconfident fresh graduate.

"Yzak, remember, Matthew's not us!" Nicole reprimanded. "He has combat experience that we don't!"

"_Oryaa!"_ Matthew chose that moment to aim all his missiles at the ship and squeeze the trigger, sending them flying towards the legged ship that had just entered his firing range…

…only for the missiles to almost instantly get destroyed by a beam of energy, that they could now see was coming from a huge rifle held by a grey and yellow coloured mobile suit… that also had two more of those huge rifles pointed at them from mounts on its shoulders. Matthew just barely managed to get out of the line of fire with a burnt shoulder on his mobile suit.

"_You were saying?"_ Dearka quipped at Nicole.

Nicole settled for a palm to her helmet. "I spoke too soon."

"_Okay, guys, I'll be right back to the battlefield,"_ Matthew said, turning towards the _Gamow_.

"_Some wingman he was,"_ Dearka grumbled on a closed channel that said ineffective wingman couldn't listen in on.

"He's still our senior," Nicole said. "At least he's not a man whose only combat experience is in mock battles."

* * *

><p>Earlier, in an alternate universe…<p>

"So, this is the Enact," a Mobile Suit tech advisor said from his seat in a military-hosted mock battle between a Mobile Suit and stationary targets. "The AEU's first Mobile Suit that runs on Solar Energy."

"The development of the AEU's Orbital Elevator is definitely lagging," a blonde-haired, green-eyed man in a business suit said from the stairs beside the tech advisor. "They probably want to make up for that by making their Mobile Suit state of the art."

"Well, look at this!" the tech advisor said, looking in the blonde's direction. "Should the ace of MSWAD be showing his face here?"

"Of _course_ I shouldn't be here!" the blonde ace pilot replied, moving to take a seat to the tech's left.

After a bit of time to digest that, the tech said, "You know, the AEU has got some nerve, alright. Announcing their new model at the same time as the Human Reform League's 10th Anniversary ceremony?"

"So, what do you think of this machine, anyway?" the pilot asked.

"To be perfectly honest, it's just a knockoff of our Flag model," the tech said to his friend in the armed forces. "Only the exterior design is original."

"_You, th-ah, ah, ah-__**CHOO!**_" the pilot of the Enact was forced to stop talking because of a sneeze. "_Dammit! Who the hell is talking about me, Patrick Colasour, the AEU's top ace, behind my back?!"_

"Well, at least it seems to have good sensors," the tech chuckled in amusement. "Both outside and inside the cockpit."

* * *

><p>Back in the prime universe…<p>

"_What gave you the idea that such a person exists, Nicole?"_ Yzak asked.

"Well, I've heard of people who get too cocky because they play video games too well but fail in real life…" Nicole mused.

"_At least we know one thing about Matthew,"_ Dearka said. "_He's unable to die _that _easily."_

"I guess so," the Blitz turned around to look at the retreating GINN. "But in the meantime, I think we should start worrying about being shot at," Nicole added as she dodged a beam without even looking. She blinked in surprise when she realized what she had done. "How did I do that?"

Yzak and Dearka gaped in surprise at that. "_What… the… fudging… HELL?!"_ they questioned in unison.

"Can we focus here, anyway?" Nicole hurriedly said, pushing the Buster out of the way of another beam before it even fired.

"_Uh… thanks, Nicole,"_ Dearka said, embarrassed by the action of being saved by his newly-made female teammate.

"_In any case, Nicole's right,"_ Yzak said authoritatively. "_No time to worry about how she did that, so be ready!"_

_"Right!"_ Dearka nodded, even as the Buster connected its weapons together and started firing back.

* * *

><p>Mu and Kagami flew towards the <em>Vesalius<em>, getting ready to carry out the plan Mu came up with. "Easy, Zero," he said to his Mobile Armor.

_"Zero?"_ Kagami asked through laser communications. _"You talk to it like it's a living thing."_

"Hey, even I can get attached to a machine that has been piloted for long enough," Mu answered. "Anyway, we're almost there, Kagami."

_"Right. Engines only, right?"_ Kagami answered from the still-cloaked Highwind.

"Right," Mu answered.

* * *

><p>Kira, Kyou and Flay had just finished their conversation with Athrun about how Magic was indeed real, when they noticed the rest of his wing was unmoving. "Hey, Athrun," Kira said.<p>

_"Yeah?"_ Athrun looked at the Strike.

"Why is it your wingmates haven't attacked us yet?" Kira asked.

_"We're in on this too, and we want to see about helping our comrade,"_ the pilot of the Slingshot chipped in.

_"...Friends are important,"_ the Maul's pilot added.

"Is that so?" Kira asked, her doubts fleeing. It was only a moment later when she realized something. "Wait… what about the third wingmate?"

_"Any friend of Athrun's is a friend of mine,"_ Rusty smiled. _"I don't think he'd take too kindly to me shooting down his possibly-more-than-best-"_

The Aegis suddenly, somehow, glared at the Hurricane.

_"His best friend,"_ Rusty amended, feeling the heat.

"Huh… nice to know that," Kira said. "Unfortunately for you guys, if you were going to hook us up, won't work."

_"You mean..."_ Athrun was suddenly feeling more than a little crushed.

"We're taken," Kira, Kyou and Flay said as one.

There was silence from Athrun's end for quite a long while, even as the Slingshot laid a hand on the Aegis' shoulder in sympathy.

"Athrun, I'm sorry," Kira said, sorrow in her voice. "If I had known you were interested in being with me a lot longer, I wouldn't have given myself to someone else."

_"I… suppose I only have myself to blame..."_ Athrun slumped in his seat. _"At the very least… he's a good guy, right?"_

"Yes, he is," Kira replied. "Now… what do we need to do to pretend to be enemies?"

_"A mock battle at the very least, I guess,"_ Athrun sighed. _"Just… no killing blows, of course."_

Before the mock battle could commence, however, Kira caught sight of a small fleet of warships of ZAFT design. "Say, Athrun, are those guys with you?" she asked, even maneuvering the Strike Gundam to point at the fleet.

_"Nope. Oh great... it must be the CLA..."_ Athrun groaned when he realized who the newcomers were.

Silence reigned supreme for a short while, before—

"WHAAAAAAAAAAAATTTT?!" Kira, Kyou and Flay roared over the private comms.

_'WHAT!?'_ Hanami, Kagami and Fubuki gasped over their telepathic link too.

—that happened.

'_Oh, great… not good,'_ Zamu uttered darkly over the link.

_'Should I get the Lieutenant to call off our attack on the Nazca-class?'_ Kagami asked.

'_Hold on a minute,'_ Kira answered over the link. Turning her attention to Athrun, she asked, "Could you wait for a bit before we know what to do?"

_"Sure. I don't think they know we stole these machines yet, so they might attack us as well,"_ the Aegis looked at the approaching fleet.

"Thanks, Athrun," Kira said. Turning her comms back towards the _Archangel_, she reported, "We've got the CLA on our case! It seems the stolen machines aren't in cahoots with them…"

* * *

><p>"Wait, what's the CLA?" Murrue asked the rest of the crew in the bridgeCIC.

"A bunch of radical Coordinator supremacists," Cagalli frowned. "It's rumored that they're funded by someone on the PLANT Supreme Council, but nobody knows exactly who."

"Last I heard anything about them, they kidnapped a bunch of children whose only connection to each other was Coordinator blood," Arnold piped up from the Helm. "I don't know if that was a wild tale or not, but…"

At that moment, Haruma hurried onto the bridge, saying, "You have to call my daughters _back_! No matter what, I won't let them become cold blooded _killers_ again!"

"Wait, what?" Natarle blinked in confusion.

"The CLA is out there, and-"

"We know that the CLA is out there," Murrue interrupted, trying to defuse the situation.

"Will you just let me finish?!" Haruma shouted, catching everyone off guard. "My daughters were kidnapped by the thrice-damned CLA while we lived in Orb, all because Kira was born a first generation Coordinator, and Kyou an Enhanced Natural! Not only that, but the CLA used psychological conditioning to reprogram them into heartless monsters that almost threw away their humanity!"

A long silence followed as the bridge crew digested the information.

"Kira-chan and Kyou-chan… what!?" Mir was the most outspoken with her reaction.

With a solemn nod, Haruma continued, "Caridad and I are still working on fixing the mess the CLA did at the time. However, should the CLA cause anything in the presence of my family, we can only pray for the safety of not only us, but the rest of the surrounding area, because Kira and Kyou _will_ become feral and do everything they can to annihilate everyone around!"

Murrue's eyes widened in shock. "They'll cause that much collateral damage!? Call them back now!"

At that moment, before anything could happen, Chandra reported from his station, "Ma'am, I'm picking up five heat sources approaching at high speed!"

"Are they missiles?!" Murrue nearly demanded.

"No, ma'am, not judging by their flight path! I'd say they were Mobile Suits! But the way they're navigating through the debris… it's impossible!" Chandra reported.

"Could it be a trap set for us to walk right into that we just triggered?" Arnold asked as calmly as he could.

"I doubt it," Tolle replied, getting everyone else's attention. "Kira-chan and the other pilots up in the front didn't fight the stolen Mobile Suits, most likely because they were hailed by the red one to have a chat, but the fact remains that they did nothing we could see or hear until they reported the CLA's arrival."

"Either way," Chandra continued, a couple seconds after Tolle finished, "the machines appear to be customized GINNs and a custom CGUE… but, if I'm seeing this right, the lead machine is approaching a-at three _times_ the speed of the others!"

A short while of silence elapsed, the crew and civilians digesting the information.

"By any chance, are the machines in the rear the customized GINNs, moving at twice the speed of a regular F-type unit?" Natarle asked, genuine fear creeping into her voice.

"Y-yes, Ensign Badgiruel," Chandra confirmed.

"We're doomed," was Natarle's reply. "It's the Bloody Comet of Yggdrasil!"

"What?!" everyone else roared in shock at what Natarle said.

"I had hoped we would continue with the strategy Lieutenant La Flaga recommended," Murrue said after calming down some. "However, we need all units back to the _Archangel_ now!"

* * *

><p>Within the cockpit of the customized bright red CGUE, Sasha said to herself, "This shall be interesting… let's test the performance of your brand new Mobile Suits, OMNI Enforcer."<p>

_"Commander, how shall we enjoy our meal today? Rare or well done?"_ One of the other GINN pilots, a Frank Bouchard grinned.

"No need to ask the question right now, Frank," Sasha replied over the comms. "I'll start checking if it's good rare, preferably extra rare, but only on my own for now."

_"As you wish, Commander,"_ Frank nodded, his GINN saluting smartly as he cut power to its thrusters and hung back together with the others.

When Sasha's CGUE started maneuvering through the battlefield, it began to rush towards the _Archangel_, getting within the point where the automated systems couldn't fire on her unit. While she prepared her unit's Assault Rifle to fire on the different guns of the ship to destroy them, she also paid attention to the enemy Mobile Suits that were headed her way, even noticing that a lone Moebius Zero was headed towards the ship.

"Hmm, inexperienced, but the machines make up for it with sheer performance," Sasha noted, even as she dove out of the way of a beam from the one that looked like a wizard of some kind.

She fired her unit's assault rifle on the one that looked like a wizard, prompting the unit to dodge the bullets, though not quite as successfully as it could have hoped.

"Impressive armour too," Sasha noticed that the direct hit she had scored on the leg hadn't done much damage. "He's not used to controlling a big Mobile Suit though, by the way he's overcompensating for each tiny movement."

At that point, a Mobile Suit that shared her unit's distinctive red color opened fire with what appeared to be a beam rifle, forcing her to dodge and fire on the newcomer.

"This one has experience, but the movements suggest a former GINN pilot since his unit is lighter..." she frowned at the sight of no visible damage on its armour, even from the clean hits she had scored. Not even a dent or scratch! "Impressive armour indeed. Not dependent on bulk or material."

It was at that moment when a Mobile Suit that looked like a witch appeared, opening fire on her with five gun barrels that had beam energy in them, forcing her to dodge and also open fire.

"If the armour isn't reliant on bulk or material, then it can only be energy-based," Sasha concluded. "Which means that it has a time limit!"

At that point, Sasha had to dodge when another Mobile Suit, one with a pair of wings on its back, rushed forward with a blade of beam energy drawn. With the distance between the enemy Mobile Suit and her CGUE increased, she took the time to draw her Heavy Sword and rush back into striking distance between them, swinging her sword against the beam blade.

As expected, the anti-beam coating on her sword dispersed the beam blade and cut right through it, forcing the winged Mobile Suit to disengage or take a sword to the arm. "I should get my entire unit coated in anti-beam coating as well," Sasha mused, idly cutting through a beam shot from one of the other Mobile Suits while barely looking at it.

By that point, all the Mobile Weapons in the area that she could see had arrived to force her back, which prompted her to sigh. "Okay, people," she said to her remaining pilots. "It's time we have our meal rare."

"_Aye, Commander,"_ Frank nodded, as the group of custom GINNs that had been hanging back joined the fray. "_Disappointed? They do seem to have potential."_

"I'm not saying the meal will stay at rare, though," Sasha corrected Frank. "It's starting out as rare, but it could easily go up in quality, which will mean more for us to enjoy."

"_Alright. Shall we school them then?"_ the GINN pilot grinned eagerly as he drew his assault cannon.

"Yes, we shall," Sasha said, before rushing towards the Moebius Zero that had appeared and dodging the bullets from the gunbarrels and the linear cannon.

* * *

><p>'<em>Kira, Kyou, calm down!' <em>Hanami shouted through the bond, which was starting to get rather noisy from the emotions running through the Yamato sisters' minds.

'_I'm sorry, Hanami, but if the CLA does anything rash, I don't think we can control the outcome,'_ Kira replied through the link. '_As it stands, this pilot is _too _good for their own good!'_

'_We can see that!' _Kagami threw in. '_We've changed targets to the CLA ships, so just hold out a bit longer until we can attack them and force them to retreat!'_

'_Easier said than done,'_ Kyou pointed out. '_At this rate, everyone will run out of power!'_

'_And I can't keep firing the Atlases like this either!'_ Fubuki said, even as the Ariete continued alternating fire between its three rifles at the CLA Mobile Suits. '_They're just dodging them easily!'_

'_This is going to be one of our worst battles ever!'_ Flay shot out for the others in the link, even as she fired more beams at the GINNs and CGUE for them to dodge.

'_We need to make sure they don't do anything rash towards the ship, in that case,'_ Zamu said as he carelessly forgot to not fire a burst of wind on the CGUE that got dodged. '_Anyone have an idea of what to do?'_

'_Keep shooting? Even if we can't shoot them down, we can make it harder for them to shoot us down instead!'_ Fubuki suggested.

'…_seems to be our only option,'_ Kira replied. With that, she fired on one of the GINNs that was about to fire its assault rifle on her, prompting it to dodge, only for it to lose an arm.

'_Nice shot!'_ Flay cheered, even as she managed to clip a GINN's leg thruster, causing it to overheat and lose a leg.

At that moment, the GINN with an assault cannon fired its round towards the Magus Gundam, and Kira saw a lot of anger in her vision as seven seeds fell behind her eyes and shattered, along with the other people with mystical abilities linked together.

'_Wha-What was that?'_ a surprised Flay squeaked.

'_I don't know, but I don't intend to let Zamu get hurt!'_ Kira roared over the link.

'_Neither do I!'_ Fubuki shouted, vaguely aware that her sensations were a lot sharper, but not really caring about it as she aimed her rifles at three different GINNs at the same time and squeezed the trigger, blasting out three beams that melted the shoulder armour of one, destroyed a rifle of another, and took off an arm on the last one.

Kyou, for her part, shot a beam with her shield at the round headed for Zamu and obliterated it. Before much time passed, she turned her unit's rifle onto a GINN and fired a mega beam at it, coring the battery and making the GINN explode.

'_One down,'_ Fubuki noted, even as she converged fire from all three of her rifles on the one-legged GINN, pincering it in between the three beams and vaporizing it with no trace left. '_Make that two.'_

Zamu, for his part, took out a Beam Saber and charged at the one-armed GINN, slicing it down the middle and flying backwards to get away from the explosion.

'_And that's three… Two more to go,'_ Flay looked at the remaining GINN and CGUE.

* * *

><p>'<em>Well, we can't let them get all the fun now, can we, Hanami?'<em> Kagami grinned as the Highwind faded into the visible spectrum immediately beside the Exodus.

'_Definitely, Kagami!'_ Hanami nodded back, even as the two Mobile Suits raised their weapons and opened up the missile racks they were carrying as well.

Immediately ahead of them was the entirety of the CLA fleet, with their engines facing them since they had snuck around them. It was a perfect, inviting target that no one could miss at the range they were at.

'_Let's cause some havoc!'_ Kagami shouted over the mental link, even as she manually designated targets for every single individual warhead she was carrying. "Firing all rounds! Full burst!"

'_Let's stop them dead in their tracks!'_ Hanami echoed as well, doing the same thing and using her mental link with Kagami to pick different targets from her.

As one, the triggers were squeezed and a rain of missiles exploded forward from the two Mobile Suits, along with weapons fire from their handheld rifles - the Highwind with a silenced sniper rifle and the Exodus with its own beam sniper rifle. Each round was perfectly placed, striking either a turret, an engine nacelle, or a missile tube. Each round connected, the two having managed to stay completely undetected and thus uncounterable. And each round was deathly effective against their unprepared opponents.

By the end of the salvo, most of the ships had their engines and weapons disabled, leaving them in no condition to continue pursuit.

'_And time to disappear!'_ Kagami chuckled, allowing the Exodus to grab onto her Highwind before she flew _through _the enemy fleet, actually doing an aileron roll and wiggling its rear in front of one of the helpless ships' bridges before tearing off through space back towards the Archangel on full thrust.

* * *

><p>"Okay… what the hell just happened?" Nicole asked the rest of the Le Creuset team pilots over secure channels, seeing the CLA forces get decimated by hyper aware Mobile Suit pilots.<p>

"_It seems that one of the pilots was a catalyst for this massive curbstomp by the Earth Forces' remaining weapons,"_ Yzak said, unaware of how right he was.

"_I hope that Miguel didn't need to worry about what's going on,"_ Dearka remarked. "_Otherwise, things would be messed up."_

It was at that point when the remaining GINN and the CGUE left the battlefield, leaving their backs exposed, which Rusty in the Hurricane took advantage of as he opened fire on the two of them with his unit's beam Submachine Guns. The CGUE was too fast to hit, but the GINN lost its head in the process.

"Um, Rusty, why are you firing on them?" Nicole asked.

"_Simple,"_ Rusty answered. "_I hate the CLA, and anyone connected to them. My mother taught me better than they were."_

"I suppose I can understand that…" Nicole sighed, before turning her attention back to the screen. "So what do we do now? I don't think we can beat them when they drove off the Comet of Yggdrasil…" she looked at the fleeing red customized CGUE.

"_I, for one, want to get out of here while I still can,"_ Yzak pointed out. "_The Acting Commander will give us orders when we get back to the _Gamow_."_

"Athrun, the Vesalius called you guys back too, right?" Nicole asked. "We got a message from them saying their engines were disabled by a surprise attack."

"_Yeah, we got the message,"_ Athrun replied. "_We just needed to get something taken care of before leaving, which it already is."_

"Something taken care of?" Nicole blinked, before turning to the Mobile Suits defending the Archangel, which had begun to stand down. Suddenly a pair of mobile suits appeared out of nowhere in front of them as well, before some of them turned to look in their direction. At that moment, she realized a sense of presence similar to what she had felt earlier when she had left the _Gamow_ was radiating from all of them. "What's going on here…?" she murmured to herself.

"_Nicole?"_ Yzak asked.

"It's… nothing. None of us were damaged when we were retreating from the fray just now, right?" Nicole looked around at her teammates.

"_Correct,"_ Dearka answered. "_Now… anyone up for a trip home?"_

"Feels like we came all the way out here for nothing, but okay," Nicole sighed, relaxing slightly when she grimaced at an odd feeling in her lower abdomen, as if she was… constipated, but not quite it. She simply didn't know how to explain it. "Ugh, I don't feel too good."

"_Uh-oh… we're getting you to Doctor Harrison, Nicole,"_ Yzak said, his voice brooking no arguments.

"_I agree with Yzak. Who knows what other side effects you could've gotten from your… um, transformation?"_ Dearka chipped in with his own two cents.

"I… guess that's a good idea," Nicole said. "Now… shall we get back?"

"_Yeah, we should,"_ Dearka nodded.

* * *

><p>Later, on the <em>Vesalius<em>, Miguel was looking over the report Athrun had compiled of how the battle turned out in the room that was now his. "Huh… so there was a blast of wind that got fired in outer space?" he mused out loud. "Not typical of a weapon, but then, this war is anything but typical now."

"Who knew magic would be involved?" Athrun shook his head. "I'm having a hard time believing it as well, but it's the only explanation for what happened to Nicole…"

"Yeah… still, how many people would believe us, Athrun?" Miguel asked. "In any case, hope you get used to leading the team, because I'll probably be reassigned elsewhere."

"What? You're being reassigned!?" Athrun gaped.

"Hell if I know," Miguel clarified. "I was only saying what I feel will be the case."

"I hope not. So far I'm liking working with you, Miguel," Athrun sighed as he leaned back in his chair.

It was at that time when a messenger came to the door and said, "We have a message from the homeland, Acting Commander."

"Huh?" Miguel got out of his seat and received the message. "An order to appear before the Supreme Council for Commander Le Creuset?!" he questioned. "Don't they realize that he's dead now?!"

"We tried to tell them the truth, sir," the messenger said. "However, there's no way the message will make it in time, not before we get back."

With a sigh of annoyance, Miguel said, "Okay, we'll head back, but we need the _Gamow_ to stay behind. I'm not going to let the new ship, this _Archangel_, get off the hook it got on any time soon."

"Right," the messenger said. "Well, time to get back to my duties." With that, the messenger returned to the bridge, making sure to get back in record time.

"Well? What do we do?" Athrun asked.

"I'll have you come with me," Miguel answered. "I trust you to tell the truth, but also to keep quiet on things that would make you look like a loon."

Athrun, after a bit to think it over, nodded. "Alright," he said. "I will follow your instructions, Miguel."

* * *

><p>"Nice work, everyone!" Kagami cheered as she exited the Highwind's cockpit and floated down to the hangar floor to meet with the other pilots.<p>

"Thanks, Kagami!" Kyou called out from the Vanguard before doing the same.

"Not bad for our first official mission," Fubuki nodded. "3 GINNs down and 6 ships heavily damaged on your side, Hanami-nee, Kagami-nee?"

"Yeah," Hanami confirmed. "Nobody's following us into Artemis."

"You know, one of these times, we'll have to explain our age-up to the rest of the ship… which won't be pretty," Kira said to the others, even as she floated down to the floor.

"Umm, do we really have to mention the ritual?" Flay rubbed her thighs together nervously, blushing at the thought of explaining said ritual.

"Either we do at an appropriate time and soon, or we take too long to tell the others and find out that they would prefer it if we had told them sooner," Zamu pointed out.

"…Otou-san and okaa-san are _so_ going to kill us," Fubuki had a horrified look on her face.

"At least we get it later than Kira and Kyou?" Kagami supplied helpfully with a look at the brunette and bluenette. "Their parents _are_ on the ship now…"

There was a moment of silence, before—

"Oh, sh-"

"Kira? Kyou? You two in here?"

—that happened.

"Umm, Kira, Kyou?" Hanami nudged both of them gently, before whispering in their ears, "Good luck." With that, she disappeared behind her Mobile Suit's leg so fast she appeared to have teleported.

"H-Hey! Hanami!" Kira roared out to the blue-eyed silverette.

"Umm, I think I need to go to the bathroom," Kagami added, catching on and hurriedly coming up with an excuse not to be at the scene. "Good luck, Kira, Kyou!" She disappeared as well.

"M-Me too, Kagami-nee!" Fubuki quickly followed at a similar pace.

"You just went before we launched!" Kyou growled, although she was too late to stop them leaving.

"I-I need to go check on my machine," Flay said, before ducking back into the Witch Gundam's cockpit.

"You don't know the first thing about Mobile Suits!" Kira pointed out helplessly.

'_We'll be right beside you… in spirit,'_ the reply came on their mental link from all of the escaped girls simultaneously.

Before Zamu could consider moving, Kyou grabbed his arm below the shoulder, effectively trapping him in place. "Oh, no you don't," she said to Zamu. "_You're_ taking responsibility for your actions!"

"Yep! You're staying here and helping us to explain all this to our parents!" Kira declared even as she latched onto his other arm.

"Urk!" Zamu cried out upon realizing he wasn't going to get out of this mess.

"Kira? Kyou?"

Mere seconds later, the familiar forms of Haruma and Caridad Yamato came around a crate into full view of the three. They blinked for a few moments, peering at their grown-up daughters in surprise.

"Umm, Haruma, am I seeing things or did our daughters age up several years in the span of a few hours?" Caridad rubbed her eyes, looking towards her husband.

"I… I think they did," Haruma was rubbing his eyes as well. "I take it this explanation is going to take a while, Kira, Kyou."

"Y-Yeah… it _will_ take a while, otou-san, okaa-san," Kira said, blushing a bit.

* * *

><p>"…so, to sum it up, Magic did it?" Haruma asked incredulously, throwing in a dangerous look at the man who had managed to snare both of his daughters.<p>

"…Pretty much," Kira said as she hugged Zamu's arm tightly into her side protectively. "Please don't kill Zamu…"

Caridad, who was calm enough to understand the nature of this, asked, "Did you girls use protection? Or was the nature of the ritual where you couldn't?"

Kira and Kyou froze for several moments. "The latter…" Kira blushed.

"Well… might as well prepare the house back in Orb," Caridad said, shaking her head good-naturedly.

There were a few loud squeaks coming from the Exodus and the Witch at the implications of that statement, as well as intense feelings of embarrassment projected through their mental link.

"Ca-Caridad! You can't mean you're okay with this!?" Haruma gaped at his wife.

Looking at her husband, Caridad simply said, "Well, why not? I'm simply the mother who wanted grandkids to happen, somehow."

"I can understand that, but they're only 16 and 15, no matter how old they look now!" Haruma argued, glancing at his daughters who now looked like they could pass for Caridad's sisters.

Caridad simply turned her attention to Zamu and asked, "Could you please teach me how the ritual works? I need to use it on my husband in private."

"…Okaa-san!?" Kira blushed brightly as she stared at her mum incredulously. "That's way too daring, even for you!"

"Er…" Zamu said as intelligently as possible, before his mind rebooted. "You just need to release at the same time as each other, ma'am. That's the best way for it to work."

All of a sudden, Haruma had a vacant, dreamy look on his face.

"Thank you, son-in-law," Caridad said with a nod to Zamu. "Now…" she turned to face Haruma. "You and I have some… _catching up_ to do, Haruma."

"Otou-san's getting lucky tonight," Kira remarked as she watched her parents leave the hangar, before she shot a sideways glance at Zamu that no one missed.

"I have no regrets for teaching them the ritual," Zamu said, turning his attention to Kira.

"Yeah, onee-chan, they deserve it," Kyou said.

"That being said… Zamu, what would you say to another round tonight?" Kagami suddenly reappeared beside Zamu, stroking his arm with a finger as she squashed her chest against his back.

Hanami somehow managed to face fault right out of the cockpit of the Exodus.

"Actually, if all goes well, tonight is probably the best time to pull it off," Zamu said with a grin.

Kira and Kyou blushed heavily before they shouted, "Ka-Kagami! Why did you and the others leave us hanging like that?!"

"Well… technically Hanami started it first, and they _are_ your parents. Let's just say we didn't really feel like being present while your parents lecture you on do-doing _it_," Fubuki blushed, having followed Kagami back.

Kira and Kyou sighed heavily in unison. '_This is going to be one _long _trip to At-Fed territory…'_

* * *

><p>"I'd say we bit on a bit more than we could chew there, Commander…" Frank looked at what was left of his custom GINN, frowning as he realized that he'd be out of action for quite a long while. In comparison, his Commander's CGUE was standing in its bracket with almost no scars of battle to show aside from a few scorch marks on its Heavy Sword.<p>

"I don't deny that we did, Frank," Sasha said. "However, we also need to report this to the King, and as soon as possible."

"Yeah, we do. Still, what was up with that sudden power-up they received near the end when we started getting our asses handed to us?" Frank sighed, scratching his head.

"I wish I knew, Frank," Sasha said with a sigh of her own. "I wish I knew."

At that moment, the PA system blared out, "_Commander Salta, come to the bridge at once!"_

"Huh? What's the big idea?" Sasha asked.

"Beats me. Commander, you'd best be on your way," Frank nodded to his leader as he turned back to their remaining Mobile Suits. "I'll supervise the repairs on our machines."

"Sure," Sasha said, before heading to the bridge.

* * *

><p>In the Kongbaoshi Base's barracks, a young man groaned slightly as he woke up, got out of bed, and began his morning routines. After he finished getting into his uniform, he was just about to head to the bathroom when a knocking was heard at his door.<p>

"What is it?" he called out.

"Sorry for the interruption, Ensign," a female voice came from behind the door. "Rear Admiral Chang wants to speak with you."

He sighed. "I'll be right there," he said.

"You don't have much time, Ensign Kurai," the female voice said. "Are you even dressed yet?"

"Just finished," he replied, heading to the door and opening it.

In front of him, a young woman with wavy brown hair and green eyes, wearing the female uniform of the Republic of East Asia, stood, ready to escort him. "You're lucky Rear Admiral Chang's my mother," she said. "Otherwise, we'd be in a lot of trouble for this."

"Get in a lot of trouble for what?" Kurai asked, cluelessly.

"Us being late to a mission briefing, _ben dan _(Chinese for idiot)!" Chang Wu Xiang replied angrily, before grabbing Kurai out from the room. "C'mon! We have to get to mother!"

"OK, OK!" Kurai yelled as she literally dragged him along, forcing him to stumble to keep up.

Soon enough, the two of them arrived at the Commandant's office, with a pair of guards at the door. It took them a little bit, but the guards let them pass, which led to the Rear Admiral seeing them enter the office.

"Ah, Ensign, glad to see you made it," Rear Admiral Chang Xiang Yu said to Kurai. "I hope that you had a pleasant sleep."

"Fairly good, Ma'am," he replied. "Wu said you wanted to speak with me?"

"Remember that she's your superior, Ensign," Xiang Yu said in a tone that meant she cared for regulations while on duty. "In any case, yes, I do."

Kurai nodded as he sat down. "Well, what is it you wanted to talk to me about?"

"We have just received a report from one of our men who was out on recon duty around the area of Heliopolis," the Rear Admiral said. "The overall damage to the neutral colony destroyed it in a way that is unprecedented by either side, but that was not the main point of interest."

Kurai blinked. "What was?" he asked.

"The At-Fed had developed the first Earth-made Mobile Suits on the colony," Xiang Yu answered. "Which leads us to your assignment, as per the directions of the Grand Eunuchs."

"Am I to recover one of these machines?" Kurai asked.

"Negative," the Rear Admiral answered. "Your assignment is to assist the remaining Earth-made Mobile Suits against ZAFT and the CLA in a machine that we had finally managed to roll out late last night." Taking a file out from within her desk, she handed it to Kurai Mako, saying, "This is going to be your new machine, the REA-MS-X01 Paopei."

Kurai took the file, before leafing through it briefly. "Thank you, Ma'am," he said. "I won't let you down."

"You're welcome," the Rear Admiral said. "Now, intel indicates that the At-Fed units and their mothership made it to Artemis, and are possibly going to head for the Moon shortly afterwards. If, for whatever reason, they don't head right for the Moon after Artemis, direct them here, to offer them your services as a temporary soldier in their crew."

"Understood, Ma'am!" Kurai said as he stood and saluted.

"Er, mother," Wu Xiang spoke up. "Not that I want to be around him all the time, but who's going to be his co-pilot in the Paopei?"

Kurai looked a bit surprised, then looked over the file again. He then realized that yes, the Paopei _was_ a two-seater, and was curious about that, as well.

"I can think of someone who can co-pilot, Wu," Xiang Yu said. "You said earlier you wish for combat experience, right? Well, here's your chance." Standing up from her desk, she said, "Now… time to get adjusted to the Paopei."

Kurai nodded, before he followed the two women out the door.

"But, mother!" Wu Xiang cried out in surprise. "Why must I be co-pilot for the _ben dan_ Mako?!"

"Simple, my daughter," Xiang Yu answered. "You have the same amount of combat experience he does, and you're his good friend. What other combination would you want?"

Kurai smiled at Wu. "Looking forward to working with you on this," he said.

Wu Xiang blushed heavily upon hearing that, spluttering a reply all the while.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, the <em>Archangel<em> was steadily approaching Artemis, the station having opened a small hole in its Umbrella for the ship to pass through.

"Is it just me, or do you guys think this was the easy part?" Tolle asked the others that hadn't aged up physically among the students.

"Well, odds are they'll still be hounding us all the way to the Moon," Sai remarked. "Compared to that, yeah, this was definitely easier."

"I hope we can get the supplies and get out," Kuzzey said, feeling uneasy. "I don't want to be stuck here for days on end, even."

"Shouldn't be too bad," Miriallia commented. "I think getting supplies was all we were going to be doing."

"Yeah, but my gut feeling says that this base is going to give us trouble," Tolle said. "Besides, I never ignore it any longer, not after the first time."

Miriallia nodded. "Alright, that makes sense," she said. "We might as well prepare for anything that may happen."

"Keeping in mind where we're going, we've locked the Mobile Suits anyway," Kira shrugged as she walked into the mess hall, accompanied by the rest of the grown-up pilots. "I've dug up some info on Artemis, and we've decided we definitely don't like the place."

"Lucky Zamu and Flay, their Gundams locked to their magical signatures so no one else can operate them anyway," Kagami grumbled.

"At least we did make sure Eurasia can't steal ours either," Hanami frowned, before she reached into her bosom to make sure that her bow was still there. "That being said, I'm getting a really bad feeling from this place…"

"Er, Hanami-san," Tolle spoke up. "Do you have a weapon on hand or something for if the base starts something?"

Before any further discussion could be had, the ship came to a halt, clamps being put on the sides of the vessel. With the vessel under lockdown, things looked like they were going downhill, faster than could be anticipated.

* * *

><p>"Captain!" Natarle shouted in indignation to Murrue, upon looking at the scene that was going on outside the ship.<p>

Murrue looked out the window, seeing all the soldiers aiming guns at the _Archangel_, before turning to face the superior officer of the inspection party and yelling, "Well, Commander?!"

"I must advise you, Captain," Commander Bidaulf said as he faced Murrue. "Remain silent."

* * *

><p><strong>Xamusel: *phew* That took forever and a half just to complete!<strong>

…**okay, sorry, I was exaggerating. Well, anyway, this took some time to finish completely… even though this chapter's shorter than the others that follow the anime's plot somewhat.**

**Now, before I let Astral have his turn at writing his notes, I want to introduce you guys to a returning co-author. Introducing Takeshi Yamato!**

* * *

><p><strong>Takeshi Yamato: Yeah, I'm joining up with this one - we have a Backlog the size of Kentucky (or maybe Texas at this point), but with 117Jorn AWOL, Ron the True Fan unable to access due to Security Issues with his Router (and most of the stories I'm working on with him needing input from Jorn), and DragonKnightRyu only on at set times, I needed to do <strong>_**SOMETHING**_**.**

**The OC that shares my name will show up in this story as well, but not quite the same as the other Gundam SEED Fics I'm part of featuring him. Still trying to determine some of the specifics involving that.**

**Looking forward to seeing where we go with this. :D**

* * *

><p><strong>Xamusel: Okay, now that that's over with, here's Astral!<strong>

* * *

><p><strong>AstralXYZ: I suppose I'm lucky I still have the time to write stuff even through my college classes. Don't worry, the three of us are probably the most free out of our little circle of writers here, so I'm pretty hopeful that we'll be able to actually keep the updates coming constantly, although there might be a few bumps here and there.<strong>

* * *

><p><strong>Xamusel: Also, to answer a review that Takeshi left before he started working with us, hopefully this met his standards from what he shared. Also, one of these days, there'll be another Tantric Ritual in this story, one that has Nicole in it, as well as a few other… surprise practitioners.<strong>

**Oh, on a side note, this story will eventually have an adaptation that is more based in the realm of novel writing. We hope you all take the time to visit where the stories will be published for money… and even find it within yourselves to read the first book for free.**

**Thank you, everyone, and have a great time (until you see us again).**


	7. How to Tame an Extended

**Xamusel: Okay… time for the chapter that essentially encompasses The Vanishing Gundam in canon. However, while this is going to be heavily non-canon, there will be some traces of the original episode in here.**

**Oh, on a side note, this chapter's gonna be considerably darker than the typical episode would imply. If you don't like mind breaking scenes, now would be the best time to drop the fic, people.**

**Now… let the games continue!**

**…****er, make that, let's continue the story.**

* * *

><p><span>Chapter 7<span>: How to Tame an Extended

* * *

><p>It was a tense situation on the Bridge of the <em>Archangel<em>, what with the Eurasian Federation forces at Artemis locking things down against the will of the crew. In fact, things were about to blow up in their faces if there wasn't anyone available to put a stop to this.

"Well, this is awkward," Kagami said intelligently as all the female pilots were herded into a different corner of the mess hall than the other people on the ship.

Fubuki switched on her empathic abilities for half a second, and quickly shut them down, grimacing as she felt the onset of an impending headache. _'Sexist bastards,'_ she muttered over the mental link.

_'__That bad?'_ Flay asked, feeling an annoyance she normally reserved for her old man.

Fubuki sent over the feelings and thoughts she had gleaned from a look at the soldiers, although it was already pretty damn hard to miss the way they were leering at the grown-up women as if they were pieces of meat. _'You think?'_

_'__I guess it's worse than I thought,'_ Flay said. _'Still, why did they do this?'_

_'__The stick-up? Kira, what did you dig up on the bastards running this base again?'_ Hanami asked, in one of her rare annoyed moments.

_'__Not a lot that the military wouldn't know,'_ Kira answered. _'However, this seems to be because of a few factors, like the Eurasians at Artemis attempting to steal data on the remaining Mobile Suits out from under us.'_

_'__Good thing we locked the Mobile Suits then,'_ Hanami sighed, before glaring defiantly back at a soldier that was blatantly staring at her chest. _'Anything else?'_

_'__Well, there's something that they keep having odd mentions of that has no specific point of reference in their database,'_ Kira answered. _'Something about a candidate Extended… not sure what that means.'_

_'__I don't think it's supposed to be a good thing,'_ Kagami frowned._ 'Zamu, how're you doing over there?'_

_'__Better than it could be, in any case,'_ Zamu answered. _'Still, hopefully these pigs will let us get our supplies and leave us alone, though that's starting to look unlikely.'_

_'__Worst case scenario, we shoot our way out and steal whatever we need?'_ Kyou suggested helpfully.

_'__No need for that,'_ Flay answered. _'The REA have a base nearby, remember? We could get supplies from them.'_

_'__Well yeah, but it's not THAT nearby,'_ Hanami replied, even as she covered her chest with an arm with a shudder. _'We still need more supplies to feed the additional civilians we brought onboard too.'_

_'__True enough, Hanami,'_ Flay said with a sigh. _'Still… when's a girl gonna get some rest around here in the comfort of her room?'_

_'__The sooner we get out of this, the better. I know Hanami still has her bow, and they didn't take my shinai,'_ Kagami informed as she adjusted the bag on her back gingerly. _'Kira, what about your katana?'_

_'__It became a small amulet after the first time I used it,'_ Kira answered. _'It's on my person.'_

_'__I need a better gun,'_ Fubuki grumbled, referring to the handgun she had hidden in her bosom.

_'__Field procurement,' _Kagami pointed out the rifles the Eurasian soldiers were carrying.

_'__Okay, this is getting out of hand,'_ Zamu said. _'For all we know, some level-headed Eurasian lets us all off the base with our supplies, and we go on to the REA base.'_

_'__I really doubt that'll happen,' _Kagami looked around at the soldiers._ 'This is one time I wish I didn't dress this provocatively...'_

_'__Now you think that way, huh?'_ Kyou quipped.

_'__Oi,'_ Kagami grumbled unhappily. _'Normally you wouldn't expect to get held up in a situation like this, right?'_

_'__Er… good point,'_ Kyou answered.

* * *

><p>"!" a young blonde-haired girl looked up from her seat, feeling an odd presence at the edge of her mind.<p>

"Oi, candidate Extended," a rough-looking man snarled at the girl from outside her room. "Don't make any sudden moves while in here! You're supposed to be doing your _training_!"

"Yes, sir," the girl nodded, even as she locked away her emotions once again, although on the inside she was curious about what had just happened.

"Good," the man said, before he turned his attention to the guards outside her room. "Now… time to make sure that she gets her daily dosage of Kilmina."

The girl let out a barely noticeable shudder at the mention of the substance she was forced to take every day. She had to resist the urge to curl up into a ball, even as she whispered quietly, "Someone… anyone… help me…"

* * *

><p>"So… who'd have thought that the Atlantic Federation's pet project would fall into our lap?" a bald man in the uniform of a Eurasian Rear Admiral asked.<p>

"Indeed, sir," his aide replied.

"Now that we have their pet project in our hands, why don't we… give them shore leave?" the Rear Admiral, Gerard Garcia, asked, a wicked smile on his face. "Besides, with ZAFT still around, they'll be happy to have it."

"Yes, sir," the aide replied, making sure she hid her scowl at her dislike of the man. It wasn't just because of his girth, or his personality, either… she was also often forced to help him… relieve stress.

"Now, now," Garcia said to the woman. "How many people can say they've been chased to a place of refuge and got the refuge at the end of the journey? I hardly think the number's high enough."

"I guess you do have a point there, sir," she replied. '_Though I doubt they'd appreciate their 'refuge' being a prison,_' she added in the depths of her mind.

"I'm glad you see things my way, Cassandra," Garcia said to her, looking her way. "Now… it should be time to call the senior officers of the ship over here, wouldn't you agree?"

"Yes, sir," Cassandra replied.

* * *

><p>After a short amount of time, Murrue, Mu, and Natarle were in front of Garcia, who was reading off their records. "So, it says you three are Lieutenant Senior Grade Mu La Flaga, Lieutenant Junior Grade Murrue Ramius, and Ensign Natarle Badgiruel," Garcia said to them from behind the reports. "Well, it seems your IDs check out as proper Atlantic Federation codes."<p>

"I'm glad to hear that, Admiral," Murrue replied.

"However, it seems we can't let you leave just yet," Garcia said. "You just got here, and it's rude to step in and out, among other things."

"Well, we likely shouldn't stay too long," Mu remarked. "I mean, we are being pursued by ZAFT, after all - and this particular team can be rather persistent."

"Oh, there's no need to worry about that," Garcia said, waving off Mu's concern. "As for the ZAFT team, they're still right outside our perimeter of the Umbrella of Artemis." To emphasize his point, he turned on a screen behind him to show the _Laurasia_-class vessel from in front of the base. "As you can probably guess, this happens all the time, so there's no need to worry about them sticking around."

"But-" Mu began, but was cut off.

"Now, why don't you three have a nice bit of shore leave? We can discuss what else needs to happen after the ZAFT team leaves," Garcia said.

At that moment, a soldier under Garcia's command walked into the room, saluting the Rear Admiral. "Commandant Garcia? The room's prepared for the three officers."

As the three were led away, Murrue turned back and asked, "Do you really think we're safe here in Artemis?"

"As safe as a babe in its mother's arms," Garcia answered smugly, before he gestured for the officers to be led out of the room.

A few moments after they had left, Cassandra, from her position behind Garcia, said, "Admiral, I think it's about time for me to go off shift. May I be excused?"

"Of course, Cassandra," Garcia said, unaware of the meaning behind her words.

Cassandra nodded, then left the room. Once the door was closed behind her, she began walking in the direction of her room, before making a few extra turns down side corridors, making her way over to the room that had been 'given' to the three Atlantic Federation officers.

* * *

><p>"Not only are they stuck inside the Umbrella of Artemis, but we don't have any way to get ourselves in there to get at them without relying on overt usage of Nicole's Mobile Suit," Rusty said, having been transferred to the <em>Gamow<em> for the time being.

"Right, the stealth features," Dearka remarked. "So, if we're going that route, how do we proceed?"

"I think we need to be careful of the Eurasians, regardless of their defensive weapon," Nicole said, having gotten done with her trip to Doctor Harrison. "My bad feeling has intensified while around the immediate area… we don't want to be around them for too long."

"OK, so, do what we need to do and get out fast," Dearka summarized. "Still, how do we do this?"

"I have to ask," Yzak said, getting the attention of the others. "What's the estimated distance to be away from the base before they lower the shields?"

"I don't think it's ever been properly measured," Captain Zelman replied. "It'd have to be beyond their sensor range, though - they'd likely bring it back up as soon as they detected an approaching enemy."

"Huh… this is going to be awkward," Rusty said. "So, we're supposed to wait until they lower the barrier on their own? Anyone here have a way to pass the time while we get Nicole ready to go into Artemis? I mean, given her pain earlier, we need to know how she'll handle it."

"Er, guys, that was a normal female thing that happened," Nicole answered with a blush as she recalled the events that had happened in the doctor's office.

The others all just blinked, wondering just why she was blushing.

"Wait, I'm the only one to have had The Talk before this strategy meeting?" Nicole asked, blinking herself. "Let me tell you… it's not fun."

* * *

><p><em>Earlier that day<em>…

"Doctor Harrison?" Nicole asked, even as she walked into the infirmary on the _Gamow_. "I don't feel good… it's like I'm constipated, but I'm not, at the same time."

"Hmm?" the doctor blinked, before her eyes slowly lit up in realization. "By any chance… are you feeling it in your lower abdomen? Where your…" she paused for a moment, trying to figure out how to break it to the boy-turned-girl. In the end she sighed and pointed at said place.

Nicole blushed heavily, before nodding. "Th-Th-That's right, Doctor Harrison," she said. "How did you know?"

"Well…" the doctor paused again, before continuing, "It's a perfectly normal thing that happens to every… girl once a month, Nicole."

"E-Every girl?" Nicole asked, gaping as she did so. "And once a month?! How does that work?!"

"It's… a sign of a fertile young woman, Nicole," Doctor Harrison explained.

"Er… you lost me, Doctor Harrison," Nicole said. "I don't think I had it explained properly before."

"Before that, though, you… might want to put these in first," the doctor reached into a drawer and retrieved a bag of long cylindrical objects with cords attached to them. "They're called tampons, and they go in your... " she trailed off, gesturing down below again.

"Uh…" Nicole said intelligently, before shrugging and heading further in the infirmary to get her clothes off. After getting them off, she lifted one of the tampons up to examine it, before freezing and asking, "How do I uh… put them in?"

"You'll need to put your fingers in, of course..." the doctor explained, before pausing again as she considered the pilot's unique situation. "If you're uncomfortable doing it, I could help..."

"Ah, um… I think I'll… use the girl's room to take care of this, Doctor Harrison," Nicole said, backing away slowly before she bumped into Li Ying, who had entered the infirmary at that point.

"Hmm? What's wrong?" Li Ying cocked her head to one side curiously.

"Nicole's hesitant to use tampons," Doctor Harrison said. "Could you please help me get her used to them?"

"Oh," the commando nodded. "You'll make a mess if you don't use them."

"B-B-But-" Nicole tried to get out of the whole thing, but was held in place by her senior in female hygiene.

"You don't want to make a mess in your suit," Li Ying simply said.

"Exactly, Nicole," Doctor Harrison said, nodding sagely. "Now, do you want this done with less complications? Or are you going to resist and learn the hard way why this is important?"

The verdette slumped. "I'll behave," she muttered.

* * *

><p><em>Back in the present<em>…

"And that's what I was taught," Nicole said to the males on the Team.

"Um, too much info," Dearka stared at Nicole blankly, even as he attempted to keep his eyes from drifting below Nicole's waist.

"Yeah, that was more than we needed," Yzak said, blushing at the info. "In short, all of it was too much."

"Well, you did ask…" the verdette's shoulders sagged slightly.

"Wait… _did_ we ask?" Dearka asked.

"I think so, based on how Nicole reacted," Rusty said.

Captain Zelman cleared his throat, getting everyone's attention away from the less-than-polite subject of discussion. "If you people are done discussing the… intricacies of the other gender, we do have a mission to get over with."

"Sorry, Captain," the men and women of the pilots said.

"So, are we all decided?" the captain looked around at the pilots crowded around the strategic map. Once he was sure he had everyone's full and undivided attention, he nodded. "We'll bait Artemis into lowering the Umbrella by moving further away, and then when they do lower it, we launch the Blitz in to destroy the Umbrella's emitters and bring it down."

"Right," the pilots said, nodding as one.

"Still, if we have any way to confirm what the bad feeling I'm having is, we should do so," Nicole said, feeling a shivering case all of a sudden.

"We can't exactly base tactical decisions on odd feelings, but if you really can find out what it is, don't endanger the mission by pursuing it too much," Captan Zelman shook his head, as he looked out the bridge window at Artemis… and the legged ship contained within. "Remember, our first priority is to destroy the legged ship so the EA won't be able to use the data on the Mobile Suits it's carrying."

"Even though it's in a Eurasian base?" Rusty asked. "Who's to say that the Eurasians here aren't above stealing the data from their 'allies'?"

The captain frowned. "Destroying the base would be a nice bonus in that case. We can't afford to let the EA develop their Mobile Suit technology any further!"

"Sir!" the pilots said and saluted in unison.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, on the <em>Archangel<em>, Cagalli was feeling an urge that is only human to have. In short, the urge to use the bathroom.

"Ugh… I need to go to the toilet…" she moaned quietly so the Eurasian soldiers wouldn't hear her.

"Sad to know that a young woman like yourself is stuck without a trip to the restroom," Zamu said, though a bit louder than he should have.

"Hmm? The girl needs a toilet break?" one of the soldiers looked their way.

Cagalli, despite the quiet nature of her complaint initially, simply nodded to the soldier. She didn't want to cause a scene that would make Orb look bad.

The soldier pulled out his radio and started talking to someone on it for a few short seconds, before he pocketed it and nodded to the blond Orb princess. "Very well. We'll escort you to a bathroom in the base."

"Not to be rude, but why not on the ship?" Zamu asked, honestly confused.

"We're doing some maintenance on the ship's sewage systems, so the bathrooms on the ship will be unusable for a while," the soldier smoothly answered.

"Very well… I'll go to the bathroom in the base," Cagalli said gratefully.

The soldier turned around for a short moment to whisper into the radio again, so that no one could see the smirk forming on his face.

_'__Zamu! Don't let Cagalli-sama leave with him!'_ Fubuki hurriedly shouted out across the mental bond as she caught sight of the ongoing scene and quickly activated her empathic abilities to peek into the soldier's head.

_'__Er… that bad?'_ Zamu asked, before he realized that it was indeed that bad. _'Okay, going to stop it.'_

However, it was too late, as the soldier got to Cagalli and prevented anyone from interfering with the escorting.

A low growl actually managed to escape Fubuki's lips, although silent enough that the soldiers didn't hear it. _'Dammit! I don't know exactly what he's going to do to her, but it's not good!'_

_'__Hopefully it won't be a permanent bad thing for her altogether,'_ Kira said, although her gut was telling her that it would be the opposite.

_'__At any rate, we need to think of a plan, and soon. We need a tracker on her, fast!'_ Fubuki took charge, watching even as Cagalli was almost leaving the room.

_'__Good thing I have a tracking spell that's adjusted to her DNA,'_ Zamu said, holding onto Cagalli's hat from earlier, carefully plucking a strand of hair from it. _'This will be of help to find out what she's going through.'_

_'__At least we don't have to wander around the base to find her later...'_ Hanami sighed, grateful for Zamu's presence. _'Thanks, Zamu.'_

_'__Sure thing, Hanami,'_ Zamu said, before activating the spell.

* * *

><p>Some time later, Cagalli had finished using the toilet, before she went to wash her hands. <em>'What is wrong with me?'<em> she thought while washing up. _'I shouldn't even be trusting the Eurasians here, much less the one that led me to the bathroom, but I did… what sort of sleaziness will happen because of this?'_

"Are you done yet?" there was a knock on the door, accompanied by a voice.

Cagalli called back out, "Just about! Have to wash my hands!"

"Alright," the voice came, and there was suddenly an odd, eerie silence.

_'__I better hurry and finish this up,'_ Cagalli thought, even as she finished washing her hands. _'Don't want to stick around longer than needed.'_

She walked towards the door quickly and opened it to step out, only to blink in surprise when she didn't see anyone. Even the soldier that had led her to the bathroom was gone without a trace.

_'__Wait, what happened? More magic?'_ Cagalli thought.

The blonde never saw the invisible syringe filled with tranquilizer that descended into her arm half a second later, but she did feel the effects. After a while, her vision started to blur as she fell to a knee weakly at first, before flopping onto her side and passing out.

* * *

><p>When Cagalli woke up, it was not on the <em>Archangel<em>, but somewhere in Artemis. As for how she was asleep, she discovered that she was hanging from a strange contraption on the ceiling, and without her clothing.

_'__Wait, what?!'_ Cagalli thought, even as her body was bare for all that would walk in to see. Despite what her image showed, her curves were more pronounced than she wanted to admit, which was why she wore such padded clothing around the parts of her body that would emphasize her curves. As such, she was actually on the large side of an E-cup, and her curves allowed the same sort of growth on her waist and hips that would allow for sex appeal.

"Ah, you're awake!" a foreign voice announced as a man wearing an OMNI uniform looked up from her immediate vicinity.

"W-What's the meaning of this?!" Cagalli roared in demand.

"Well, sorry for the way you're being treated, but we really needed a new… subject, you see," the man smiled ominously. "And most of the soldiers on the base are male, so any women missing would be noticed…"

Cagalli did not miss the implications behind the soldier's words. She attempted to get out of the mess she was in, even as she yelled, "Do you have any idea who I _am_?! For that matter, do you know what political situation you've caused just by abducting me?!"

"We don't really know who you are, quite honestly," the man shrugged even as he reached for a table Cagalli only just noticed was there, on top of which lay a few syringes. "But again, quite honestly, we don't care."

Cagalli's eyes widened in fear, even as she struggled to get out further. "W-What are you planning on?!"

"Liiiike I said…" he took up one of the syringes and experimentally squeezed it, before walking over to her. "We needed a new… test subject, and you were the only one we could take that won't be missed by anyone on the base. Now, be a good girl and hold still…"

Cagalli would've resisted the directions, but a pair of men that were hidden in the shadows came out and held her in place, forcing her to stay stock still for the syringe.

"Aaaaand done," the man smiled as he pulled the syringe out from her arm and tossed it into a nearby rubbish bin. "Don't worry, you'll be feeling _really_ good in a short while…"

Cagalli opened her mouth to retort, but a moan escaped her lips, a moan of desire that she didn't feel was right for the situation. _'Wait… what's _wrong_ with me?'_ she thought. _'How come I feel so… hot and bothered?'_

"Hmm, that took effect faster than expected… then again, the… used ones have probably built up a minor resistance to it," the man mused, even as he gave Cagalli's breasts a rough, experimental squeeze.

"Ahn!" Cagalli let out in pleasure, even as she thought to herself. _'Wait a minute… was it because of that drug? What the hell _is_ it they gave me?'_

"Incidentally, that was a… little aphrodisiac we gave you. Feels… _good_, right?" the man punctuated his revelation by gently running a finger over her skin, down from her quivering breasts over her toned stomach to her nether lips, before drawing circles around it. "How does it… feel?" he chuckled.

Cagalli's tongue stuck out, drool forming on it, even with her mind attempting to regain all of her sanity. _'Don't fall for it! It's not supposed to be a good thing, being raped!'_

However, what came out of Cagalli's mouth instead was, "Goooood~."

"Hmmm? I can't really hear you… Can you repeat that?" the man laughed, clearly lying as his fingers found her clit and roughly pinched it.

"It feels so gooooood~!" Cagalli answered, even though her mind was not in control. _'Don't! Father wanted to have this situation avoided, so he did his best to keep this situation from happening!'_

"Is that so?" the man nodded to the two men holding her, who immediately released her. "Do you want more?" he inquired with a smirk.

_'__Don't do it, me! I'm going to regret this if it goes the way-'_ Cagalli thought, before the words she spoke next interrupted her thoughts. "Is there any way to keep the voice in my head happy?"

"Don't worry, that'll come soon," the man replied.

"Make it nowwwww~!" Cagalli said, even as her inner thoughts were in the process of rebooting.

The man smirked, as he dropped his pants and boxers to the ground, revealing his already hard erection. "If you insist," he said as he walked up to her, and began using the tip of his cock to tease her entrance.

"Ooooooh~!" Cagalli moaned out, starting the process of losing all her sanity.

His smirk turned into a savage grin as he began pushing his cock into her pussy.

Cagalli moaned out further, even with her internal thoughts getting garbled. _'Don't… this… Father'll… mad!'_ her thoughts tried to get out, only for the pleasure to build up more. While she was feeling the pleasure, she suddenly felt something block the path of the man's cock, before she asked, "Could you…?"

"Of course," he said.

"Great~!" Cagalli said, even as she was lifted up enough to be freed from the restraints and then dropped to the base of the man's cock, breaking her hymen on the second go in her pussy.

The man soon began thrusting his cock within her, not bothering to start slow as he set a rather fast pace.

Cagalli's mind soon became a giant blank, even as she bucked her hips in sync with the man, before she felt something intrude her ass at the exact moment that she started bucking her hips.

The man continued thrusting, even as one of his assistants began thrusting into her ass, attempting to match the rhythm of the initial thrusting.

As the thrusting continued, Cagalli said, "More… I need more~!"

At that moment, the other assistant began thrusting his cock into her opened mouth, such that all three of her orifices were being fucked at once.

Cagalli continued to buck her hips for the men in her pussy and ass, even as she kept her mouth available for the man inside that. Even still, she was getting ready to cum, and so were the men inside her.

"We're… ungh… cumming… girl!" the lead man grunted out.

Cagalli did what she could to say that she was, too, but she didn't need to. Her holes were filled such that it was impossible for her _not_ to cum from any mixture of them being filled. As such, she felt her insides get painted white, even as she came extra hard.

The men all bellowed out as their cocks were milked for all they were worth by her spasming body. Eventually, they pulled out, leaving her body panting and limp on the table.

"M… More…" Cagalli said as soon as she could get her words out. "I want… more~!"

"Still raring for more, huh?" the leader grinned lecherously. "Unfortunately we're a little spent, but we do have something else for you…"

"Wh… what is it?" Cagalli asked in between breaths of air.

"It's a little something called… Kilmina," the leader reached over to the table and retrieved another syringe. "It'll help make you feel… really good," he grinned.

"W… will it?" Cagalli asked.

"Yes, it will. Now, you have to be a good girl, otherwise you won't get it, okay?" the man chuckled as he slowly approached her.

"I… I'll be good," Cagalli said, almost as if she were craving the drug before she got it.

"Good… then here it comes," he pricked her arm with the syringe and emptied its contents into her bloodstream, before pulling his underwear and pants on. "Come on, we're leaving," he signalled the other two men.

"Right, boss," the men said as they nodded, before they left the room.

Cagalli looked at the leaving men in confusion, before she suddenly became aware of her body getting hotter and hotter… and not in the good sense. A red haze descended upon her, and that was the last thing she knew for the time being.

* * *

><p><em>'<em>_Well, shit,'_ Zamu said over the telepathic link to the girls.

_'__You felt it too?'_ Fubuki shuddered. _'It… it feels so wrong, so unnatural…'_

_'__We need to destroy that research, pronto!'_ Kira roared over the link. _'Though the question is, how do we get over to the research labs where this perversity is at?!'_

_'__I think they'll be looking for a way to unlock the OSes for our Mobile Suits...'_ Hanami mused, looking in the general direction of the hangar. _'What if we let ourselves get caught?'_

_'__It's too risky, Hanami-nee! What if they… they did the same thing to us that they did to Cagalli-sama?' _Fubuki gasped.

_'__Well, let's just hope that those bastards don't think to do that in the next few days,'_ Kyou said. _'We need to get out of this mess as soon as possible, so that we can get everything we can out of here that doesn't belong!'_

_'__We just need a good chance… Kira, how good are your acting skills?'_ Kagami mused, adding in a look at said brunette.

_'__Depending on what you want me to do, I might have an idea of what to do to help you out, Kagami,'_ Kira answered.

_'__Then follow my lead, Kira,'_ Kagami winked at her before speaking out just loud enough for the soldiers to hear, "Dammit Kira, we're all in this mess because you had to bring the extra lifeboats in…"

"Wh-What the… I didn't bring in the lifeboats! That was Fubuki!" Kira roared at Kagami.

_'__Dammit Kira, go with the flow!'_ Kagami groaned, but kept going regardless. "Well, you were the one to suggest it! If you hadn't, we wouldn't have needed to come here for the extra supplies!"

"What about the condition the lifeboats were in, huh?!" Kira argued, bringing up a valid point. "If those lifeboats were left out there for much longer without their life support systems in place, the civilians from Heliopolis would have been in trouble!"

Kagami made a very convincing double take as she reared back and thought for a quick moment. _'Sorry civvies,'_ she mentally apologized. "It's either us or them, Kira! We don't have the supplies to spare for them!"

_'__Why don't you apologize to them out loud instead?!'_ Kira snarked over the mental link. "We had no trouble with holding the supplies until we made it to a more reasonable base, but that was _before_ we made it here! Besides, don't you think that you should apologize to our fellow citizens of Orb for making that comment about how they should've died?!"

"Well, excuse me for butting in, but you girls forgot the fact that we could've used our Mobile Suits to salvage some more supplies from Heliopolis before we headed out!" Hanami butted in as well, with a discreet wink directed at both of them.

"Stuff it, Hanami!" Kira roared, even though she caught onto the wink. "This isn't the time for what-ifs like that!"

"Well, the Highwind definitely has the cargo capacity for additional supplies, and it's fast enough… why didn't I think of that!?" Kagami started banging her head against the wall more than a little convincingly… actually she looked like she really meant it.

_'__You really didn't think of that, Kagami-nee?'_ Fubuki blinked.

_'__No, I didn't,'_ Kagami stopped banging her head for a moment. "Sorry about that, civvies! Really sorry for what I said just now! I should've thought it through!" she actually began grovelling towards the civilians that were on the other side of the room.

At that point, Garcia walked into the room, before he noted that the arguing was winding down. "Er… is now a bad time?" he asked.

"They're almost done, so please just go ahead," Flay faked a more accommodating tone towards the officer. _'Eurgh, I hate politics but my… _father _made sure I knew the etiquette to deal with it…'_ she spoke the word 'father' with more than a little disdain.

"Ah, good," Garcia said to Flay, before he asked the crew, "Okay, who among you are the pilots and mechanics of the Mobile Suits on board this ship?"

"Sir! I believe this group of women are the pilots!" one of the soldiers reported as he gestured at the women, having listened in on the faked argument the girls had been having. "They were mentioning some details about the Mobile Suits in their argument just now!"

Murdoch smacked his face in exasperation.

"Is that right?" Garcia mused out loud. "Now, though, there's someone missing from the group of women that we need to account for, and it's not Mu La Flaga. He was piloting his Zero still, wasn't he?"

"Hey, don't bring Zamu into this!" Fubuki shouted, before cupping her mouth as if she had said something she shouldn't have.

Arnold and Dalida mirrored Murdoch's motion from earlier.

"Zamu, eh? Well, there's a strange name," Garcia said, before he looked around the room for anyone that was out of place.

_'__Come on, Zamu!' _Fubuki called out over their link.

_'__What do I need to do?'_ Zamu asked over the link.

_'__Actually hold it, this needs to be more… convincing,' _Kagami interrupted as she shot a defiant glare at Garcia. "We're not telling you anything more about Zamu!" she declared.

"Is that right…?" Garcia walked over to Kagami and roughly grabbed her arm, intent on dragging her out of the room. "I think we can… talk… about this in a more… _private_ setting, don't you think?"

_'__GROSS!'_ Kagami screamed, both over the mental link and in reality. "Owowowow! Let me go!"

Before things could continue down that course, Zamu stood up defiantly, yelling, "_I'm_ the one you want!"

"Ah, why didn't you say so earlier? Then we might not have needed to hurt your… friend here," Garcia grinned, as he released Kagami but not without groping her ass first.

"Dont you _dare_ lay a hand on her or any of the other women on this ship!" Zamu roared defiantly. "You want to do that, you'll have to go through _me_!"

All of Kagami's worries about her harassment immediately vanished as she began rubbing her thighs together, feeling herself get a little moist down below at the sight of Zamu being angry for her sake. _'Nonono, Kagami! Sex later!'_ she quickly dissuaded herself from the thought, vaguely aware of the rest of the girls thinking in exactly the same way.

"Why, you little…!" Garcia rushed towards Zamu, throwing a punch at the latter, only for Zamu to dodge out of the way and throw the corrupt officer at the wall.

"See what I mean, you sexist pig?!" Zamu said to Garcia's prone form.

"Take them to the hangar! Keep two of the women for insurance!" Garcia roared angrily even as he rubbed his broken nose.

_'__Oh shit, I think we went too far,' _Fubuki muttered.

_'__Okay, probably not my best idea,'_ Zamu said over the link.

"Yes, sir!" the soldiers saluted as they reached out and held onto the Yukikaze twins before marching out of the mess hall.

"Let me go!" Kagami shouted defiantly, genuinely struggling against her captors.

"H-Hey!" Hanami threw in, as she felt one of the men deliberately bump her against his thighs.

"Kagami-nee, Hanami-nee!" Fubuki shouted out in a panic.

* * *

><p>Back inside the <em>Gamow<em>, Nicole was modifying the OS of the Blitz again, just to make sure that she had enough Mirage Colloid particles to use on the trip to Artemis. "Okay, this might end up being my last trip to anywhere with Mirage Colloid on extensively, so I have to milk this for all it's worth," she said.

_"__Nicole, we'll be right behind you once you take those emitters down,"_ Dearka nodded on the video communications.

_"__You'll be okay,"_ Li Ying threw in.

"I hope so," Nicole said, before thinking of something. "How far away are we?"

_"__We're about 50-"_ Rusty froze, before reporting, "_Artemis is turning its Umbrella off now!"_

"Thanks, Rusty," Nicole said. "Now, it's time to get our asses into gear, if you'll pardon the language."

_"__I cuss more on my periods too,"_ Li Ying blushed. _"And I get a craving for meat…"_

_"__Too much info, comrade!"_ Andreyev clapped his hands over his ears.

"Er… thanks, Li Ying, for that info," Nicole said. "Guess that explains why I want more dairy products to ingest now."

_"__Anyway, good luck, Nicole,"_ Captain Zelman saluted the verdette._ "Good hunting."_

"Thanks, Captain," Nicole saluted as well, before turning her attention to the launch pad. "Nicole Amalfi, Blitz, taking off!"

With that, Nicole launched from the _Gamow_, turning on her unit's Mirage Colloid almost immediately.

* * *

><p>"So… if you're the pilots of these machines, you should know how to unlock their OSes, right?" Garcia smiled wickedly, although the impact was a little less when he was still nursing a broken nose.<p>

"Er, two of the machines don't have an OS, Rear Admiral," Zamu said, expecting that to fly over the man's head.

"They don't? But you must know their secrets, right?" the base commander's smile dimmed slightly. "And you should be able to reverse engineer those secrets…"

"Even if we knew their secrets, we don't have the right credentials to reverse engineer them," Zamu answered. "Besides, you wouldn't even believe what sort of secret runs two of them, so why should we talk about that?"

"Well, if you're referring to the obvious magic running through the two machines' frames…" Garcia trailed off, adding a not-so-subtle glance at the Magus and Witch, letting the group make their own conclusions as to what he meant.

With a gasp, Kira demanded, "How do you know about that?!"

"That would be telling, but I'll give you a hint… Death visits at the worst of times," he chuckled, before his expression turned serious. "Now, either you unlock the Mobile Suits… or your friends over there are in for some trouble," he jerked his head towards the hangar control room, where Hanami and Kagami were being restrained by a group of soldiers and glaring out the window at them.

Zamu was the only one to get the reference, as he indignantly yelled, "You _bastard_! You're with the Council of Sorcerers, aren't you?! Why, I oughta…!"

"Hmm, someone knows about the Council of Sorcerers? That's rare, but you're wrong on that count," Garcia glared at Zamu threateningly. "I left. Of my own accord. There's so much more that all that magic can be put to use for other than killing a bunch of inferiors, you know? And by the way, for calling me a bastard…" he signalled the soldiers in the control room.

They saluted back, before they stepped in front of the two captured girls and with one swift movement, ripped their shirts right off, baring their large assets, which had only gotten larger since the ritual, to the remaining pilots.

_'__NO!'_ Hanami screamed, as she tried to cover her chest only for her arms to be restrained.

"Why, you…!" Kira yelled indignantly, before Zamu stepped in front of her.

"We'll cooperate… for now, _Garcia_," he spat coldly.

"Then let our partnership be a… _fruitful _one, Zamu," Garcia leered back.

_'__Are you sure about this, Zamu?'_ Kira asked over the link.

_'__Positive, Kira,'_ Zamu replied.

_'__Do-Don't worry about us, just get into your Mobile Suits!'_ Kagami tried to stay confident, although the others could feel her fear through the mental link.

_'__I-I'm still a-armed too!'_ Hanami added, her old stutter coming back slightly in her panic.

_'__Alright, we'll do it,'_ Kyou said over the link.

* * *

><p>Back with the senior officers, Mu was pacing about the room they were stuck in.<p>

"Goddamn it, something's definitely very wrong outside. I can feel it in the air!" Mu muttered, wondering if it was his so-called Newtype magical senses going off.

"Hard to say, Lieutenant," Murrue said, lowering her head for a bit. "Still, at least Ensign Badgiruel's worries weren't unfounded, as she was warning us to get away from this area."

"And now we're stuck here with no way of knowing what's happening to the ship!" Mu slammed his fist against the wall in frustration. "Fuck it all!"

"I agree with the sentiments, Lieutenant," Natarle said, even as she shook her head. "However, there's bound to be a way to get out of here without causing the crew to panic."

At that point, there was a slight commotion at the door, which was soon resolved before the door opened… and Garcia's aide stepped in.

"I'll be blunt," she nodded to the officers. "Get me out of this cesspool of a base."

"Wait, really?" Murrue asked, a bit incredulous at the words the woman used.

"I've already made arrangements for the _Archangel_ to be resupplied," she smiled, before taking the guns from the fallen soldiers outside and sliding a rifle towards Mu, with a pair of handguns for Murrue and Natarle. "And quite honestly if you've been here for as long as I have, you wouldn't think my calling this… this… cesspool a cesspool is an overstatement."

"I'll say," Mu said, picking the rifle up off the ground. "Don't think it's an overstatement, but an understatement, really."

"Really? Then what words would you use to describe it?" the woman ejected her own handgun's magazine, checking it quickly before sliding it back in.

"Hell in Space, I'd say," Mu answered. "If anything, it's a personification of a wretched hive, if the internet's anything to go by."

"Hell is too weak a word to use if you ask me. Try purgatory?" she bantered back with a smile. "By the way, I'm Lieutenant Commander Cassandra Zywicka, _formerly _of the Artemis Garrison." She heavily emphasized the word 'formerly'.

"Huh? You outrank us?" Murrue asked incredulously.

"A mere technicality since the aide has to be of a minimum rank. _Garcia_," she spat the name out aggressively, "-pulled some strings to get me promoted from a First Lieutenant because he_ liked_ me." Again, she spat out her second to last word.

"Okay, that's got to be the worst thing ever," Natarle said, even as she checked her handgun.

"You can see why I have no love lost for the… pompous fleshbag," Cassandra nodded, making a face as she recalled what the man had done. "Let's get moving, I'll lead you to the _Archangel_. Lieutenant La Flaga, please disguise yourself as a security guard."

"Will do," Mu said, before he took a uniform from a deceased security guard.

* * *

><p>"Is that it?" Nicole muttered to herself as she came across an odd man made structure sticking out of the surface of the asteroid. Making her decision, she shot it out with the Blitz's beam rifle, causing it to explode and rattle the asteroid base hidden within.<p>

* * *

><p>In the hangar, everyone was knocked off their feet temporarily by the explosion, aside from the pilots already in their mechs.<p>

"What was that!?" Garcia shouted out.

In the control room, Hanami and Kagami had quickly recovered from the fall, and Hanami had quickly retrieved her shrunken bow from her cleavage, expanded it back to its original size, and dispatched the soldiers in her immediate vicinity by generating a wind blade around it and using it as a sword. Kagami had run for the bag containing her kendo swords as well, quickly pulling them out just in time to sharpen them and turn a soldier who had been about to fire on her into sashimi. "Human trash deserve no sentiments," the red-eyed twin growled, as she flicked her shinais once to remove the blood.

Even as Garcia looked around for the source of the chaos, the people he had keeping an eye on the pilots were suddenly evicted from their Gundams, primarily by means of literally kicking them out. Of course, since he didn't notice that, he was unaware of the Strike Gundam's foot moving towards his position.

_'Kira, don't kill him _yet_!'_ Kagami hurriedly called out over the mental link. _'I'm not usually a big fan of torture, but I think this is a special case!'_

_'__Oh? If you say so, Kagami,'_ Kira replied over the link.

"Hey asshole!" Kagami shouted out, even as she halved the distance between her and Garcia in what looked like a single step.

When Garcia turned to look at her, Kagami quickly and deftly sliced his hands off before he could reach for anything, following it up by jamming her swords into his feet to pin him in place.

"Aaaargh!" the corrupt base commander screamed in pain.

_'__When do you want me to kill him?'_ Kira asked.

_'You'll know soon enough...'_ Kagami grinned as she stepped aside and let an arrow fly past her... spearing the officer right in the part that made him a man. "Going for that part already, Hanami?"

"He's worse than scum, he won't need it," Hanami was shaking in rage even as she watched Garcia try to remove the arrow, to no avail.

"True enough," the red-eyed silverette grinned as she rounded on their target. "So, scumbag, how does it feel like to be on the other end for once?"

"U-U-U-U-U-Uh-oh…" Garcia whimpered out in pain.

"I can't hear you…" Kagami grinned as she looked into Garcia's eyes, before squashing her bared breasts against his chest cheekily.

Garcia froze for a moment before he started screaming harder, trying even harder to get the arrow out of his hardening man parts.

"I wonder if there's such a thing as acquired erectile dysfunction?" Hanami tapped a finger on her chin thoughtfully.

_'__Kagami, that's going too far, even for a woman like you,'_ Kira said over the link. _'Can I kill him now?'_

_'Considering what he did to me?'_ Kagami growled but backed off anyway. "You're not worth it. Hanami, let's go."

Hanami nodded as she rushed towards the Exodus, but not before retrieving her arrow manually… and agonizingly slowly. "I'll be taking this back," she whispered.

"And I need these back," Kagami yanked her shinai out of the base commander's feet roughly.

Before Garcia could formulate a way to get back at the twins, the foot of the Strike Gundam came crushing down on his head, squishing him.

_'Zamu! Any clue where Cagalli-sama is?'_ Hanami shouted, climbing into her Mobile Suit and powering it up.

_'__Not good… something's blocking the spell like an N-Jammer blocks communications!'_ Zamu said in a panic.

_'What!?'_ Kagami gasped, even as she turned on the Highwind's computer. _'Dammit! We can't just leave her here to die!'_

* * *

><p>As far as where Cagalli was, she was currently hooked up into a giant Mobile Armor with a co-pilot alongside her, namely the other blonde from before. Even though Cagalli was going into a berserker rage and essentially making the most use of the weapons systems, the younger girl in there with her was the one piloting it, and her mental capacities were unhindered because of an immunity to the drug.<p>

"Grrrk...!" she was, however, being affected by the rage emanating from the older blonde filtering in through her mind somehow.

As it stood, this Mobile Armor was equivalent of the atmosphere-bound Staff units, only with the limitation that it was only to be used in Outer Space. If it was anywhere inside Earth's gravity well, or on a planet at all, it would cease to function. Still, this experimental unit, the EFM-MAN-X01 Fantasia, was sent on an intercept mission to intercept any and all ZAFT units that had possibly entered the base, and possibly keep the At-Fed units stuck inside Artemis.

"H-Help…" the younger blonde whispered, even as the rage threatened to smother her psyche, only held back by her pure desperation.

* * *

><p>Even as the blonde piloted the Fantasia, Nicole was well aware of the pain that both pilots were going through, even though she didn't know what was going on. <em>'Wh… what is this feeling?'<em> she thought. _'It's as if… someone is dying on the inside...'_

_"__Nicole! We're on our way in now!"_ Rusty roared over the comms. _"Don't get too reckless now!"_

"Wasn't planning on it, Rusty!" Nicole answered, even as she shot at the Moebius units that were somehow equipped with beam cannons.

Several more of the Lightwave Barrier emitters went down as well, when she finished dispatching the Moebius units, even grabbing one bodily with the Blitz's free hand and throwing it into one of the emitters. By now though, she had learned to trust the new gut feeling she had apparently gained after being turned into a girl. She wondered if it was really anything related to female intuition, although she… highly doubted it...

Suddenly, even as she charged forward, a jolt of awareness hit her and forced her to jink backwards to avoid a massive beam blast on par with a battleship's main gun in size and power.

"The heck!?" Nicole yelped, hurriedly diving out of the way as a massive unit swooped past her, almost ramming into the Blitz on its way past.

If she really had to describe it, it resembled a giant dandelion with a body and a skirt, which protected a set of powerful thrusters. Several large barrel-like objects with large cannons sticking out of them rested on its back, one of which was smoking slightly indicating it was the one that had fired the beam earlier. It also sported an aggressive black and red paint job that made it look very, very dangerous.

And it also felt very, _very_ wrong to her new senses.

"Are you the one!?" Nicole shouted, even as she dodged more beam fire coming from the dandelion-like head. The odd sense of… rage emanating from the unit was muted at their distance, but she could nonetheless feel it, and a sensation of… fear? It definitely felt like fear being suffocated by the rage. What could that mean?

Even as the Blitz dove behind one of the emitters to use as a shield, Nicole hurriedly activated the Mirage Colloid, only to yelp and jump out of the way of another beam shot. What was up with people shooting at her even though her stealth system was on full blast!? It was already feeling obsolete to her! Growling, she settled for returning fire with her unit's lancer darts, although they missed by a country mile when the… thing boosted out of the way.

"I could use some help with this thing!" Nicole shouted at no one in particular.

At that point in time, Dearka fired a combined shot from the Buster's shotgun, only to see a barrier of sorts block the shot. _"What the hell is _wrong_ with the guns?!"_ Dearka roared over the comms.

"It's not your guns that are malfunctioning, it's this… thing!" Nicole growled, dodging another shot that had come in from a different angle before realizing that one of the unit's rear-mounted gunbarrels had separated from it. "It's got something similar to our Phase Shift that can be projected at a distance!"

_"__Huh?! You mean there's a field of anti-beam energy floating around?!"_ Dearka roared, even as he fired his micro-missiles at the Mobile Armor, which barely got past the field limit when a ring was formed around the machine and prematurely detonated the missiles. _"Dammit! What _now_?!"_

"Argh!" Nicole grunted as she dodged another beam, a sudden jolt at the edge of her consciousness alerting her not to get too close to the Mobile Armor. "Don't get too close to it!"

_"__I don't think we can even get close to it!"_ Yzak growled, the Duel dodging a frenzied flurry of beam shots from the dandelion head.

At that moment, some of the parts of the dandelion that looked like they could be seeds shot off from their base and shot literal balls of fire at the Blitz, forcing Nicole to dodge again.

_"__Get it offa me!" _Andreyev hollered, a stray fireball having hit the Slingshot's arm and lingered for a few moments before snuffing out, but not before leaving a burn mark on the armour. He breathed a sigh of relief before reporting, _"Some of the hydraulics burst from overpressure, but I'm fine!"_

"Be sure not to use that arm much, then!" Nicole ordered, making sure to dodge the lightning that was streaking out… wait a minute!

_"__I'm ambidextrous, comrade!"_ Andreyev grinned ferally as he resumed firing using the submachine gun equipped to his other hand, while dodging out of the way of one of the lightning bolts. _"And I can still take a bit more of a beating!"_

"I'm more concerned about the lightning, idiot!" Nicole retorted, even as she dodged another bolt headed her way.

_"__Something up with the lightning, Nicole?"_ Rusty asked, squeezing off a shot from his beam submachinegun before ducking behind the destroyed frame of a Lightwave Barrier emitter for cover against a lightning bolt, jetting away a safe distance when he realized the lightning was lingering on the metal frame and arcing off it every now and then ominously.

"I don't know how to explain it, but it feels off, and rightly so!" Nicole answered, dodging another bolt of lightning. Before she could continue talking, a blade of wind was sent flying her way, prompting her to dodge again.

_"__Wind…"_ Li Ying noted, grumbling when she realized that her extreme close-combat based Mobile Suit wouldn't be contributing much to the fight when she couldn't get close enough to do anything. _"Andreyev! Your spare gun!"_ she shouted at the pilot of the Slingshot.

_"__Catch!"_ the Russian Coordinator caught on immediately and threw the beam submachinegun he was holding towards the Maul, while releasing the one his damaged hand was holding and grabbing it again with his intact hand.

Almost as soon as the Maul caught the beam submachinegun, another bolt of lightning streaked towards the area where the gun was originally, missing the Maul and… hitting… the Duel!

"Oh shit," Nicole cursed.

_"__YZAK!"_ Dearka roared, attempting to grab onto the electrocuted Duel for one reason or another.

"Dearka, you _nimrod_! Stay away from the Duel!" Nicole roared at Dearka, mere moments before the inevitable happened.

_"__AAAAAARGH!" _came a scream from the cockpits of the Duel and Buster simultaneously, before their radios fried and all communication from them cut off.

_"__DEARKA! YZAK!"_ Rusty roared out, about to go and grab his allies out of their cockpits before he was forced to dodge a beam blast headed his way.

"Wait for the electrocution to stop before you grab on to them dammit! We don't want you doing what Dearka did!" Nicole shouted, painfully aware of the odds that had just shifted even further in the Mobile Armor's favor with two of their own Mobile Suits out of commission… and possibly… no, she didn't want to think of that possibility!

Suddenly, the Mobile Armor turned around and fired a beam blast in the direction of the port, making Nicole wonder exactly what it was shooting at before it hit her. They had been too distracted with the thing to proceed with their original mission to destroy the Archangel!

* * *

><p>"Well girls, this is not a good situation, considering that I'm <em>finally<em> getting a reading on Cagalli-sama!" Zamu reported in the Magus Gundam.

_"__I think I'm a little more worried about Dandelion-Head in front of us!"_ Kagami shouted, dodging another of the beams.

"Actually, she's _inside_ the giant Mobile Armor," Zamu added into the report.

There was silence for several moments, as Zamu covered his ears in anticipation.

_"__WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAT!?"_ came a chorus of voices over the comms, including those of the bridge crew on the _Archangel_.

"_Are you _SURE_, Zamu?!_" Kira asked.

"As sure as the Sun outside of Artemis being called Sol by us natives of the Sol System," Zamu replied. "I wish I was wrong, but I'm not."

_"__How are we going to get her out of that thing?"_ Fubuki asked, even as she opened up with her beam rifles from the deck of the _Archangel_, only to grimace when the beams splashed harmlessly against the field surrounding said thing.

"_I can think of two ways,_" Kira informed. "_Either disable it and find a way to get her out, or distract it while someone gets in close, finds the cockpit block, and carves it out of the rest of the machine._"

_"__Well, I don't think we can get close with THAT going on…"_ Hanami pointed her rifle at the thing, which had suddenly released its dandelion seeds which were now starting to create what could only be described as a localized lightning storm, with arcs of lightning running between each individual seed. Even as they watched, a chunk of debris floated into the storm, and was almost instantly disintegrated into dust.

It was at that point when the Mobile Armor aimed the beam cannons at both the ZAFT units and the units under the control of the _Archangel_, forcing everyone that could to dodge, even with the Hurricane and Blitz moving the Duel and Buster out of the line of fire. Several of the beams tore into the surface of the asteroid base, carving huge chunks out of the exterior and even blowing up a section of it that had been used for storing ammunition.

_"__Tch, this is tough! Beams don't work on him and any physical weaponry we fire at it just gets disintegrated by the lightning!"_ Kagami gritted her teeth, squeezing her controls tightly and diving out of the way of another beam that struck the asteroid again, this time right beside the spaceport doors.

_"_Archangel_, you need to get out of the spaceport! You're just a sitting duck in there!"_ Hanami hollered over the comms.

_"__If we could, we would!"_ Mu's voice retorted from over the comm channel. _"However, we don't have any way to get out while that Mobile Armor is in the way!"_

At that point, Kira had a bit of an idea. "_What if we tried projectiles a bit larger and faster?_" she asked.

_"__I recall the _Archangel_ is equipped with railguns…"_ a female voice the pilots had never heard before spoke over the radio.

With a resounding smack that was heard over the comms, Kyou yelled, _"Get those railguns online, then! We're going to need all the help we can get!"_

_"__Umm, my rifles also have a railgun mode…"_ Fubuki quietly spoke up.

_"__And I have linear cannons…"_ Kagami added, punctuating it with a waggle of the linear cannons on her Mobile Suit's shoulders.

Before any further comments could be made, Zamu said, "Alright, we need to find the cockpit and shoot _around_ it! Anyone up for that task?"

_"__I think it's more important for us to disable the weapons first,"_ Fubuki contributed, even as she steadied herself on the Archangel's deck, took aim at the gunbarrels on the rear of the unit which were unable to fly out through the lightning barrier, and squeezed the triggers.

With a loud crackle of electricity and plasma, a trio of tungsten spikes exited the barrels of her rifles, flying straight towards their targets at several times the speed of sound. When they hit the lightning barrier, they started disintegrating as expected, but barely a millisecond later they had impaled themselves in three of the four gun barrels and actually started conducting electricity through them into the machine's inside for a short moment before they turned to dust.

With a low whistle, Zamu said, "Well… that should be helpful against this unit. Who wants to fire the next salvo?"

_"__Valiants, firing!"_ the female voice from earlier reported in from the _Archangel_, even as a pair of railguns that had unfolded from the side of the _Archangel_ squeezed off a pair of high-calibre tungsten spikes. One flew wide, but the other punched through the side of the unit's 'skirt', tearing off a few thrusters and hampering its mobility.

"Okay, that's pretty good, _Archangel_," Zamu said with a nod. "Kagami? You up for a shot?"

_"__Leave the precision work to me!"_ Kagami grinned as she flew in just close enough to be outside the range of the lightning barrier, before transforming back into Mobile Suit form and taking aim with her linear cannons. _"Oryaaa!"_ she shouted, unleashing a salvo of rounds that tore into the torso of the unit around the very center of it, where she thought she could see a cockpit hatch. Unfortunately it was too close to the seed launchers for her to shoot the annoying weapons out, but she thought she had done a good job as she flew a safer distance away when one of the seeds decided to try and catch her with a lightning bolt.

"Alright, that should do it," Zamu said, even as he shot a wind blade at the Mobile Armor with his unit's staff, creasing his brow in concentration as he manipulated the path of the attack to score a hit on the seed launchers without hitting the cockpit.

With that, the lightning field dissipated, allowing them to see what appeared to be the cockpit block resting underneath the destroyed seed launchers. The unit itself had stopped moving, too, thankfully.

Zamu rushed in with the Magus Gundam, Flay mere meters away from him in the Witch Gundam, and hurried to the cockpit block of the giant Mobile Armor to get Cagalli out of there. Pulling out a Beam Saber, he started cutting around the area where the cockpit was, even as Flay stood on guard duty and kept the stolen units out of the way.

It only took a few minutes, but the cockpit block was soon carved out of the unit, and pulled free.

During those few minutes, it had been a Mexican Standoff between Flay and the ZAFT pilots who were awake, with the Witch Gundam's Gunbarrels active and primed. As soon as the cockpit block was removed, she retreated with her back to the _Archangel_, keeping the stolen units away from her lovers and the crew of the ship.

* * *

><p>"Well, that was definitely an encounter I don't want to repeat," Nicole remarked.<p>

_"__Yeah, that's the case for all of us, Nicole,"_ Rusty said over the comm channels. _"I know we'd rather not be stuck fighting that sort of unit again, and I'm sure the At-Fed guys are thinking the same thing."_

"Agreed," Nicole replied. "Let's get the Duel and Buster back to the _Gamow_…" she paused for a moment in thought, then continued, "and pray that what happened to me didn't happen to Yzak and Dearka."

_"__Yeah, let's just hope that you were the exception instead of the rule, Nicole,"_ Rusty agreed, shuddering at the thought of female versions of Yzak and Dearka.

* * *

><p>Zamu set down the cockpit block of the mysterious Mobile Armor in the hangar of the <em>Archangel<em>, having returned to the ship with the others as the ship made its way from Artemis.

"Well, I hope that Cagalli-sama is alright in there," Zamu said. "It would sure be a political disaster to see that she was forced into a situation and killed for it."

_"__Agreed,"_ Kira replied. _"Thing is, though, this close, I'm not just sensing Cagalli-sama in there…"_

_"__Yeah, same here,"_ Kyou said from her unit. _"I wonder who else could be in there?"_

_"__Only one way to find out,"_ Kagami sighed. _"I hope Cagalli-sama's alright…"_

With that said, Murdoch made his way to the cockpit hatch, even as he was followed by a security detail and some surviving medics that were staffed on the ship. After a few moments, the chief mechanic started opening the hatch, inputting a security bypass code that worked within the first few seconds.

_"__Anything?"_ Kagami asked as Hanami leaned the Exodus over the cockpit block to look into the hatch.

_"__They're both out cold it seems,"_ Hanami observed with a sigh. _"Thank goodness, but we might wanna get something in there to cover Cagalli-sama up with first… she's not exactly well-dressed right now."_

_"__Oh, you have _got_ to be kidding,"_ Flay said over the comms. _"How bad is it?"_

_"__I'm not going to lie, she's not looking very good,"_ Hanami frowned. _"I hope your okaa-san can do something for her, Kira, considering what she appears to have gone through…"_

_"__Right… I'll make sure okaa-san does something,"_ Kira said, before she got out of the Strike Gundam and headed over to the medical team.

_"__I suppose all we can do right now is be there for her, but… she's just gone through something I don't think any of us will be able to sympathize with…"_ Kagami said solemnly.

_"__Fubuki, would it be possible for you to share her experiences with us once she's awake? I think it's the least we can do for her,"_ Hanami turned the Exodus to look at the Ariete.

_"__I'll try… but I don't think it'll be very pretty to look at,"_ Fubuki nodded in her cockpit.

* * *

><p>An hour later, after the <em>Archangel<em> and the _Gamow_ had vacated the area, the CLA fleet under the command of Sasha Salta finally made it to the remains of Artemis. The bridge crew on the _Pascal_ were looking through the ruins of Artemis, wondering whether or not they could salvage anything, before one of the crew looked at her console.

"Commander, I'm picking up a massive object over in the direction of the base's spaceport," she said. "It looks to be a Mobile Armor that got disabled."

"The remnants of it don't you mean?" Sasha frowned, looking at the main display that was now zoomed in on said Mobile Armor. "It looks unlike anything else I've ever seen before. What have the EA been developing…?"

"I have no idea, but it seems to have been torn apart by linear rounds," Angie reported from her seat. "I don't want to know what happened here, but it's something we need to find out, ma'am."

"You have a point," Sasha tipped her hat. "Send out what remaining Mobile Suits we have to investigate. And while we're at it, we might as well try to find out what makes the EA's Lightwave Barrier tick."

"Er, ma'am, only your CGUE is operational enough to be sent out," Angie said. "The other units are either destroyed or, in Frank's case, need to be overhauled anyway."

"Well, I guess I'd better suit up then," the ZAFT ace sighed, as she left her chair. "Angie, you have the ship."

"Roger that, ma'am," Angie replied.

* * *

><p>"Please don't let it happen to them, please don't let it happen to them…" Nicole muttered as she jumped out of the cockpit of the Blitz and floated towards the disabled Buster and Duel.<p>

"Get the hatches open now!" Andreyev roared at the techs even as he did the same.

When the techs opened the cockpits of both the Buster and Duel, everyone stared slack-jawed at the sights of the pilots, both having undergone the exact same transformation Nicole went through… perhaps even looking all the hotter at the same time.

Li Ying was the first to react, sucking in her breath and entering the cockpit of the Duel to try and wake Yzak up. "Yzak!" she shook him… her gently.

"Who?! What?! Where?!" Yzak woke up because of the shaking she received. Upon looking at Li Ying, she yelled, "Don't _do_ that! Don't you know how fatal that can be to a person?!"

The Chinese Coordinator pointed at Yzak's chest with a shaky finger. "Look down," she pointed out bluntly.

Yzak, curious about the meaning of the bluntness, looked down and saw a massive amount of extension from where her chest was initially to about eight or so inches away… before she blinked in confusion. "Wh-What happened? How did my chest become like Nicole's?!"

"Further down, too," Li Ying moved Yzak's hand gently to where her crotch was.

"What are y—" Yzak started to protest, before feeling something wrong with the situation with her hand. "Wait… no penis? I got… I got turned into a girl?!"

"I-I-I HAVE BOOBS!? WHAT THE HELL!?" a decidedly foreign, female voice echoed throughout the hangar as well.

Nicole palmed her face at that last one. "Crap… Dearka as well?! I hate this mess we got ourselves in…"

"More girls, though," Li Ying's face seemed a little brighter at the thought of a stronger female-to-male ratio on the previously testosterone-dominated team.

"_I_ wanted what happened to Nicole to be a fluke, not the standard," Yzak snarled out.

Li Ying backed off slightly, but patted Yzak's shoulder and extended a hand towards the newly-turned girl's hand to help her out of the cockpit. "Checkup first, make sure you're okay," she looked towards the door leading towards the infirmary, which opened right on cue to reveal Doctor Harrison carrying some medical equipment and files.

"Okay, what happened _this_ time?" Doctor Harrison asked, a bit irritably at that.

"Doc, please tell me I'm dreaming, and what happened to Nicole didn't happen to me…" a blonde woman in an ill-fitting red pilot suit pleaded as she stepped out of the Buster's cockpit, almost causing Andreyev to faint from blood loss since her suit had ripped open down the top to expose more than a fair bit of her cleavage. It didn't help that she was… quite voluptuous, weighing in at a H-cup compared to Nicole's E-cup. Compared to her earlier form, her hair was longer now, reaching almost to the small of her back, although it retained the same curls she used to have.

At that point, Yzak had been gently removed from the cockpit of the Duel, showing off her own ill-fitting red pilot suit with G-cup breasts and matching curves. Her silver hair reached down to her thighs, and was as straight as it was before the change. "Dearka, I hate this as well, but it seems it's no dream," Yzak growled at her fellow teammate to suffer from this misfortune.

"Dearka, you were the one stupid enough to touch the Duel when it was still being electrocuted, you know…" Nicole pointed out with a perfect deadpan expression.

"Okay, ladies, it's time to reveal what I found out _this_ time around," Doctor Harrison said, getting the pilots' attention.

Yzak and Dearka both sighed in unison, even as they adjusted their pilot suits to try and hide their new bodies better while trying not to look at them. Nicole looked at the both of them sympathetically, silently thankful that she had been knocked out and didn't have to suffer through the indignity of doing this in the hangar. Her cheeks coloured slightly when she realized that someone had to have carried her to the infirmary and undressed her, but she quickly reassured herself that what she didn't know wouldn't hurt her… right? Plus she was starting to get used to life as a girl… even if the tampons were still less than… desirable. And she still had that damned urge to drink more milk.

"Dearka, you're probably not going to believe this, but your records say your name's now _Andrea_ Elsman," Doctor Harrison said with an irritable sigh, clearly hating this as much as Dearka would. "It seems nobody else knows about the truth of this at all."

"Great," the newly-renamed Andrea slumped, which did interesting things to her large… assets. "Just great. Although I suppose the one good thing about this mess is that I'm not just limited to seeing _them_ anymore," she glanced down at her new body.

"Pervert," Li Ying muttered.

"And I assume I'm now _Sarina _Joule," Yzak wrung his hands, still clearly displeased by the thought. "My mother once talked about how it would be the name she had given to me if I were born a girl…"

"Right in one, Yzak, or should I call you Sarina?" Doctor Harrison inclined her head towards the silverette slightly.

"Nicole, how sure are you that this… transformation is permanent?" Andrea crossed her arms under her breasts, attempting to discreetly test their weight although everyone could see her true intention.

"I'm 95% sure, _Andrea_," Nicole said, slightly glaring at the elder of the two that got transformed. "I don't feel like testing the lightning effect to see if it reverses the effect, not when I'm certain that it could kill me if I tried."

"Electrocution is not fun," Li Ying offered helpfully.

"Argh… I don't really have a choice, do I?" Yzak groaned, cradling her head in her hands. "Sarina then."

"I still need to check with your parents, though," Doctor Harrison said. "I need to see if the transformation affected their memories like it did with Nicole's parents."

"Please do… I sure hope so though, because it'll be really hard to explain this… this whole mess away," Sarina gestured at herself and Andrea.

"Err, Yz… um, Sarina, don't you need to call your mother anyway?" Rusty asked in reminder.

"…Shit," Sarina cursed, before looking down at herself. "Can I at least get a… female uniform or something before I call her? She'll kill me if I show up on the comms looking like this."

Doctor Harrison nodded. "I'll provide a form-fitting uniform for you, don't worry," she said. "I still need to check with your parents, both of you, so be sure to handle yourselves in a responsible manner."

Andrea made a disgruntled noise when the doctor shot a stern glare at her.

"Thank you, doctor," Sarina sighed in relief.

"It's not a problem, Sarina," Doctor Harrison said. "Now… back to my office I go." With that, she headed back to her office, going to check on the memories of her patients' parents.

* * *

><p><strong>Xamusel: Well… how many of you were expecting <strong>**_this_**** out of us? I hope this helps you guys understand the sometimes extremely dark nature of the universe as we're writing it. Before I get to say anything else, I'll have Takeshi write his notes, as well as Astral.**

* * *

><p><strong>Takeshi Yamato: Wasn't really expecting the bit with Cagalli, myself, tbh - I realize we needed to do it for plot, but learning just what was going on came a bit out of left field for me. A little heads-up in advance next time we need to do something like the Cagalli scene would be welcome, Xam.<strong>

* * *

><p><strong>Xamusel: Heads up will happen next time, Takeshi, no worries. And, now, here's Astral with his notes!<strong>

* * *

><p><strong>AstralXYZ: I don't think any of us really liked writing that particular scene with Cagalli, but please understand that it needed to happen for the plot's sake. I'm sure hoping that we won't have to write anything else that goes that dark later on though. That being said, we've been sorting out some more ideas for the future of this story, so stay tuned!<strong>

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><p><strong>Xamusel: Now… I wish there were reviews to answer in here, but, well… nothing. In any case, nothing really comes to mind for what else to say, sadly.<strong>

**Now… hope to see you next time (whenever that will be)!**


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